Joe Le Monmer 
AUSTRALIA 
Queensland 
J 
and green turtles are concentrated in 
the waters surrounding the high, gra- 
nitic Western Islands and to a lesser 
extent the low, coral Central Islands. 
Around these islands, the seas are 
shallower, the coral-rimmed reefs and 
sand shoals more abundant, and sea 
grasses more plentiful than around the 
volcanic Eastern Islands. The major 
hunting areas are concentrated over 
the numerous big reefs around Ma- 
buiag, Moa, and Badu islands. 
Dugongs and green turtles are de- 
pendent upon, and exert a consider- 
able pressure on, beds of sea grasses 
and some algae. Pasturage and tides 
influence feeding time and place. Dur- 
ing high tide the animals move to 
inshore areas and the higher, wind- 
ward-side reef tops; during low tide 
they move to offshore, deeper water. 
Some 4,500 Melanesian people inhabit 
seventeen of the myriad islands, thir- 
teen of which are reserves; about 2,000 
Islanders, and 1,000 other people of 
multiethnic backgrounds, live on mi- 
nuscule Thursday Island, a nonreserve 
island and the region’s only commer- 
cial and administrative center. The re- 
serves are administered by Queens- 
land’s Department of Aboriginal and 
Islander Advancement (DAIA) and 
subject to a special set of state laws 
known as “the Act.” 
Within a span of little more than 
100 years, this area has experienced 
many external influences: the intro- 
duction of Christianity and Mother 
Hubbard dresses brought by the Lon- 
don Missionary Society; several boom- 
and-bust economic cycles focused on 
pearl shell, trochus shell, and beche- 
de-mer (sea cucumber), which intro- 
duced wage labor, cash-based eco- 
nomic exchanges, dependency on 
market goods, and South Sea Island 
males to supplement local labor; the 
influx of 6,000 Japanese pearl shell 
divers between the 1870s and 1940 
(1,200 of whom never finished their 
six-year contracts, having died in the 
Torres Strait while pursuing their dan- 
gerous occupation); cursory bombing 
and the threat of invasion during 
World War II and the mobilization 
of Islanders into an army unit; and 
postwar increases in Commonwealth 
and Queensland State expenditures 
for new housing, medical care, and 
social benefits. 
In the face of the kaleidoscope of 
introduced new ways and materials, 
the Islanders have maintained much 
from their past by recasting outside 
influences with Islander molds. All ac- 
tivities are dominated by kinship and 
social obligations. For example, even 
though traditional death ceremonies 
have been changed to accommodate 
introduced Christian rituals, the ob- 
ligations of the living to prepare the 
way for the dead still follow traditional 
beliefs and kinship-based duties. Simi- 
larly, Islanders continue to hunt, not 
because they have to, but because they 
want to. 
Queensland State legislation allows 
continued subsistence hunting of du- 
gongs and sea turtles by Islanders (and 
Aborigines) living on reserves. The re- 
serves represent both oppression and 
protection. The government controls 
the finances and most of the trans- 
portation and communication for the 
reserves. While some of the things an 
Islander can do are restricted because 
of the reserve legislation, Islanders can 
restrict outsiders from visiting the re- 
serves. Islanders can travel between 
the reserves and to the mainland, but 
outsiders cannot go to the reserves 
without special permission. This must 
be obtained from the elected Islander 
chairmen and councils, which admin- 
ister much of the internal affairs of 
each locally governed community and 
strictly limit and control the intrusion 
of non-islanders. Thus, despite the 
presence of such conveniences as ra- 
dios, tape recorders, hand-cranked 
sewing machines, outboard motors, 
tinned and sacked foods, and State 
and Commonwealth social benefits, 
the Torres Strait Islanders remain one 
of the foremost tropical marine hunt- 
ing societies in the world. 
Within the Torres Strait, dugongs 
