Heard of the Post Office Island, Booby Island Torres Strait. I have had the good fortune of visiting there, and standing in the cave , thinking about those who came before me was a sobering thought.
- The Torres Straits Daily Pilot,which was said to be the world’s smallest and most expensive daily newspaper, commenced publication in 1877 and ceased during WWII. It was the forerunner of the Torres Newswhich commenced production in 1955.
- Sir George Bowen was a highly effective colonial administrator who became governor of just about everywhere – after serving as the first Governor of Queensland in succession he became Governor of New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and Hong Kong.
- Six months later, on 7 February 1863, in his new flagship HMS Orpheus(Captain Robert Burton RN) Commodore Burnett and Captain Burton together with another 187 officers and men were drowned when Orpheuswas wrecked on the bar while entering Manukau Harbour on the west coast of New Zealand.
John Smith, who was Executive Officer serving in the survey ship HMAS Moresby, says that in 1964 his ship had just taken over from HMAS Warrego which had surveyed Gannet Passage to the west of the Torres Strait. This involved establishing a tidal station on Booby Island with two sailors camped there for several weeks. At this time the lighthouse was manned, with families and numerous young children. They came to an agreement that in exchange for looking after the children and helping with school work their mothers would provide meals for the sailors, using naval provisions.
It did not take long for our capable Jack Tars cum schoolies to teach the children the intricacies of tide poles which had to be read every 30 minutes over a 24-hour period. With a roster fully established a very satisfactory arrangement was concluded to contented and well fed sailors, and some well behaved school children.
Booby Island and its Post Office | Naval Historical Society of Australia (navyhistory.org.au)
Images of Booby Island. [ scattered among others.]
booby island post office island - Bing images
I’m pretty sure the dinosaurs died out when they stopped gathering food and started having meetings to discuss gathering food
A bookshop is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking
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