Stretching from the northernmost tip of Australia to Papua New Guinea, the Torres Strait is a vast territory of 274 islands forming one of the most significant cultural and navigational crossroads in the world.
For more than 2,500 years, Torres Strait Islanders have maintained an incredible diversity of maritime cultures. On this expedition, you’ll meet some of these distinctive island communities whose languages, customs and traditional practices remain fundamentally different from those practised by Indigenous nations on mainland Australia.
Your journey begins at Thursday Island (Waiben), which rose to significance as the centre of a thriving pearling industry in the late 19th century, drawing workers from across Asia and the Pacific. By the 1890s, the vessels operating on ‘TI’, as the island is also known, supplied more than half the world’s pearl shells. Paspaley Pearl then crosses to Badu Island, 60km north of Thursday Island,and Masig island in the Strait’s central island group, both of which were important stops on early pearl trading routes.
Possession Island and Cape York offer a fresh perspective on a colonial milestone before we reach the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s most extensive coral reef system.The long, narrow ribbon reefs that run along the edge of the continental shelf are renowned for their extraordinary biodiversity, which is also on display at the high granite island of Lizard Island (Jiigurru), our last stop before disembarking in Cairns.
As a 50-metre boutique vessel accommodating only 30 guests and 22 crew, including four naturalists, Paspaley Pearl ensures an intimate experience of this fascinating and oftenoverlooked part of the world. From pearling heritage and native title history to ribbon reefs and granite islands, this expedition connects maritime cultures, historical turning points and reef ecosystems that exist nowhere else on Earth.
Day-by-Day Adventures
Thursday Island
DAY 1
Badu Island
Passing a shoreline dominated by mangroves, we will step ashore at the home to the Badulgal people, where island communities navigated by the stars and ocean currents long before the existence of European charts and maritime instruments. Freehold title was returned to the Badulgal traditional owners in 2014 in recognition of a connection to Country that long predates the pearling era in which Badu Island was once the domain of pearl luggers.
DAY 2
Masig Island
Masig Island, formerly Yorke Island, is a coral cay barely three kilometres long in the central group of Torres Strait islands, and rises just three metres above sea level at high tide.
It is also home to the Masigalgal people, who welcome us ashore and invite us to learn about and understand the island’s significance in the trade networks that have long criss crossed the Torres Strait.
DAY 3
Possession Island and Cape York
Possession Island (Bedanug) is ostensibly where Lieutenant James Cook, arriving on the HMB Endeavour, climbed to its highest point and claimed the entire east coast of Australia for Great Britain. The Kaurareg traditional owners have their own, very different account of this event, as documented by the Australian Museum in consultation with them, which we will learn more about on our visit. Later, we will cross to Cape York, the northernmost point of mainland Australia, where the Australian continent ends and the Torres Strait begins.
DAY 4
Outer Great Barrier Reef
Over two days, we will explore the northern Great Barrier Reef’s outer barriers and ribbon reefs, where long, narrow formations unique to this area support abundant and extraordinarily biodiverse coral gardens. These coral channels attract pelagic marine life, animals primarily found in the open ocean, making for some of the most vibrant snorkelling sites in the entire Great Barrier Reef.
DAYS 5-6
Lizard Island
Home to the Dingaal people and the main landmass within Lizard Island National Park, Lizard Island (Jiigurru, meaning stingray) rises 359 metres above sea level and was named after the yellow spotted monitor Varanus panoptes. It is also home to more than 40 species of seabirds and an abundance of marine life, thanks to its location more than 25km from mainland Australia. Swim and snorkel at Clam Gardens off Watson’s Bay, where giant clams (Tridacna gigas), the largest bivalve species on Earth, nestle among colourful coral beds in shallow waters as clear as a swimming pool.
DAY 7
Cairns
This morning, you will disembark Paspaley Pearl after eight days of exploring island communities, cultural crossroads and the remote reaches of the Great Barrier Reef, with a deeper knowledge of the people and places that continue to shape these remarkable environments.
DAY 8
Departure dates
Ocean Double/Single Stateroom
$13,995
Ocean Twin Stateroom
$14,995
Ocean Stateroom
$17,495
Horizon Suite
$20,495
Pearl Suite
$25,995
Prices are in AUD$ per person based on twin share. Single supplement pricing is available on application. *Sole occupancy of stateroom #107 attracts no single surcharge.
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