Torres Strait Islands

Torres Strait Islands

Flag of the Torres Strait Islanders
Location of the Torres Strait Islands, between Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Geography
Coordinates	10°34′44″S 142°13′12″E / 10.579°S 142.220°E / -10.579; 142.220
Area	566 km2 (219 sq mi)
Administration
Australia
Torres Strait Regional Authority
Capital and largest city	Thursday Island
Chairmana Chief Executive Officera	Napau Pedro Stephen Leilani Bin-Juda
Demographics
Demonym	Torres Strait Islander
Population	4,514[1] (2016)
Languages	English; important local languages: Kalau Lagau Ya, Meriam Mir, Torres Strait Creole

The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of 48,000 km² (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km² (219 sq mi).

The Islands are inhabited by the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. Lieutenant James Cook first claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of Australia at Possession Island in 1770, but British administrative control only began in the Torres Strait Islands in 1862. The islands are now mostly part of Queensland, a constituent State of the Commonwealth of Australia, but are administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority, a statutory authority of the Australian federal government. A few islands very close to the coast of mainland New Guinea belong to the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, most importantly Daru Island with the provincial capital, Daru.

Only 17 of the islands are inhabited.^[2] The Torres Strait Islands' population was recorded at 4,514 in the 2016 Australian census, with 91.8% of these identifying as Indigenous Torres Strait Island peoples. Although counted as Indigenous Australians, Torres Strait Islander peoples, being predominantly Melanesian, are ethnically and culturally different from Aboriginal Australians.