Badu Island, Queensland

Badu Island (Mulgrave Island) is an island 60 km North of Thursday Island Queensland, Australia in the Torres Strait.

This island is one of the Torres Strait Islands.

Badu Island once had a feared reputation as an island of headhunters. Warfare, turtle and dugong hunting were the main occupations of Badu men until the 1870s.

Pearlers established bases on the island during the 1870s and by the early 1880s the islanders were becoming dependent on wages earned as lugger crew. At the same time, the first missionaries arrived at the people's request. At the peak of the shell industry in the late 1950s, the Badu fleet of 13 boats employed a workforce of 200 providing work for many men, even from other islands as well. However, once the shell trade declined, many people moved to the mainland for work. [http://www.ozoutback.com.au/postcards/postcards_forms/tsi_moa_mabuiag_badu/index.htm]

ee also

*Badu Island Airport

Aerial photos & maps