Thursday Island lies in the Torres Strait, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Cape York, Australia. The island is also called Waiben. It has an area of about 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometers). The island is the administrative center of the Torres Strait Islands. It has government offices, a hospital, a radio and telegraph station, and a pearl research station. More than 2,200 people live on the island. Most of them are Indigenous people known as Torres Strait Islander peoples. Europeans first settled on the island in 1877.
