Ngurupai (Horn Island)
Situated in the Torres Strait Islands' Inner Group to the southeast of Thursday Island and east of Muralug (Prince of Wales Island), around forty kilometres from Cape York Peninsula's northern tip in the Torres Shire, the 53 square-kilometre Horn Island (Kala Lagaw Ya: Ngurupai or Narupai) is the site of the airport, which serves Thursday Island with regular services to and from Cairns and the Strait's outer islands. Matthew Flinders gave the island its English name, which possibly refers to a two-peak hill on the Island's northeast side, in 1802.
Relatively flat, with the highest point 112 metres above sea level, Ngurupai shares similar topography and geological history with the mainland — hills and mounds of basaltic rock covered in largely undisturbed vegetation, with closed and open forest, grasslands, intertidal wetlands and mangroves on the coastal margins.
After an 1871 massacre on Prince of Wales Island (Muralag), remnants of the Kaurareg people briefly settled on the island before the Queensland colonial authorities relocated them to Hammond Island. They remained there until 1922 when they were relocated to Kubin on Moa Island. In 1946, some Kaurareg moved back to Horn and settled on the island's northwestern coast. In April 1971, the township of Wasaga was named after their leader, Wasaga Billy.
In the meantime, John Smyth, whose family was involved in the pearling industry and other business pursuits, discovered gold on the island in 1894. Over the next twenty years, the mine produced around 6,000 ounces of gold but ceased operations when the gold became more difficult to extract. A short-lived attempt to reopen the mine in the late 1980s lasted two years.
The gold mine and activity associated with the Strait's pearling industry saw a settlement on the island flourish until the non-islander residents were evacuated to southern Queensland during World War II.
A major Allied airbase — RAAF Base Horn Island — constructed by the Civil Construction Corporation and the Department of Main Roads was an important staging base for Allied aircraft moving between Australia and New Guinea during the war. The Japanese bombed the aerodrome facilities on eight occasions during 1942 and 1943.
Missing links:
Wasaga Billy,
John Smyth
RAAF Base Horn Island
