John Guilliatt was messing about with his kayak at the back of Jadine’s Motel on Thursday Island. He seemed like just the bloke to tell me about the abandoned and decaying dug-out outrigger canoes on the beach.
They conjured romantic images of Thursday Islanders going fishing before the Mercury or Yahama outboard wrecked traditional ways.
Wrong. More prosaically, they had been towed there from Papua New Guinea by the Australian Customs Service which had caught their occupants fishing illegally. The Thursday Islanders thought they should not be burnt, but left of the beach as a reminder of bygone days.
No; the romantic bit comes with John and his wife Michelle and their seven-metre fibre-glass kayak.
It doesn’t seem possible that you could take such a thing across Torres Strait, but that’s what they did. You see, you cannot realistically spend a night out in a kayak. If you fall asleep you could tip over and drown.
But the Strait is dotted with 200 hundred islands, 90 per cent of them uninhabited, though fairly frequently visited by traditional owners. Many are smaller than a football field. With careful navigation, you can island hop in a way that reduces the maximum day’s paddle to less than 30kms. Paddling at 6km/h that means five hours.
In the middle of last year, the Guilliatts did precisely that. They spent three months island hopping. They set out in May, after managing the Wilderness Lodge at the very tip of Cape York for four years. They had looked out north wondering what exactly was there and how they could learn more about its people and culture.
In all they stayed on about 20 islands, mostly uninhabited. They spent some weeks on inhabited islands getting to know the people.
The trip was in two parts: from Cape York to Stephens Island, about 200km north-east, back by barge to Thursday Island and then by kayak due north 100km to Mabuiag Island. That way they got to see the different Eastern and Central cultures of Torres Strait.
It wasn’t all a romantic dream. They were constantly wet with waves splashing over them while paddling. Some islands had rats on them, which tried to steal their food, and they went for up to month on occasions without a fresh-water shower.
“”Can you imagine the state of our hair?” John said.
Then there was the fear of navigational error. They had a compass mounted on the deck and had to make estimates for wind and current, both of which can be strong and changeable in the strait.
So low down, they only had 2km to 3km visibility.
John said the best way get to know Torres Strait culture was to meet the people at sea level.
“”If you fly in, you come like every other European who has been telling these islanders what to do for 100 years,” he said, “”If you come on their terms, they are more open and more friendly. You have a common ground because you are doing what they are doing. You get a lot of respect, especially from the older people who remember the out-rigger days.”
When they arrived at an island many people come to watch. They usually asked, “”Where is the outboard?”
“”People adopted us on Stephens Island,” John said. “”There is no airfield there. When we left they had a big feast and told us they had been tempted to hide our kayak so we couldn’t go.
“”We explored all the islands. Every one was different.”
Water was a bigger problem than food. They got water from the prawn trawlers and cray diving boats.
“”The islanders don’t like these Europeans fishing in their waters,” he said.
The could carry enough rice and flour for two months aboard the kayak and the sea and some spearing prowess provided abundant crayfish, oysters, fish and abalone. And they had a small but powerful VHF radio connected to the phone network for safety.
“”So there we were on an uninhabited island in the middle of Torres Strait eating crayfish pizza and phoning our parents on the mainland,” he said.
“”We didn’t seen anyone for weeks. We have never been fitter or felt better or more in tune with our surroundings. No chemicals, no preservatives. Everything was natural.”
Michelle said, “”One day we had steak given to us by some islanders. It was awful. The grease stuck to your mouth. We couldn’t wash the plates without boiling fresh water.”
Now they are managers of the newish, clean Jardine’s Motel with all mod cons on Thursday Island. Well, at least for the next five weeks.
Then they will be off again in the kayak. They will go down the western side of Cape York and back to Thursday Island. Then they will go by barge 250km north-east to Murray Island and paddle back.
They hope to find some wild eco-tourist place to manage; not a motel. “”Concrete is horrible,” Michelle said.