Erub (Darnley Island)
Situated 201 kilometres northeast of Thursday Island and around 840 kilometres north of Cairns in the Torres Strait Region's Eastern Islands, near the Great Barrier Reef's northern end just south of the Bligh Entrance, Darnley Island (Meriam Mir: Erub) was named by William Bligh after his distant relative, the Earl of Darnley during his second breadfruit voyage to the Pacific in 1792.
Like nearby Mer and Ugar, the 5.7 square kilometre Erub was formed by volcanic action. The island was home to a thriving pearling industry from the 1800s through to the 1900s. It attracted many Japanese divers, some of whom lost their lives to the “Darnley Deep”.
The effective community language is Brokan (Torres Strait Creole), though many people still speak the traditional language, Meriam Mir.
Missing links:
Bligh Entrance
Second breadfruit voyage
Brokan (Torres Strait Creole)
