Albany Island or Pabaju is an island off the north-eastern coast of Cape York Peninsula in the

Adolphus Channel The Adolphus Channel is a channel located in the Torres Strait, situated northeast of Cape York, in Queensland, Australia. Geography The channel runs north of the Albany Island, one of the islands of the Manar group of the Torres Strait Isl ...

and part of the

Manar Group Manar (), sometimes Al Manar (with the Arabic definite article "al-"), may refer to: Manar People *Andy Manar (born 1975), Democratic member of the Illinois Senate *Houari Manar (1981–2019), Algerian raï singer Places *Manar Dam, a dam on the ...

of islands of Queensland, Australia. It is within the locality of Somerset in the Shire of Torres.

Geography

Albany Island is off the north-eastern coast in the Cape York Peninsula about East of Bamaga, and southeast of the tip of Cape York. It is separated from the peninsula by the Albany Passage (). The island is a part of the Torres Strait Islands; it is about long and is volcanic with fringing coral reefs. It is said to have been certainly part of the territory of the

Djagaraga The Djagaraga or Gudang (Pantyinamu/Yatay/Gudang/Kartalaiga and other clans) are an Australian Aboriginal tribe, traditionally lived in the coastal area from Cape York to Fly point, including also Pabaju (Albany Island), in the Cape York Penins ...

or Gudang people. The island was surveyed in 1848 by

Owen Stanley Captain Owen Stanley FRS RN (13 June 1811 – 13 March 1850) was a British Royal Navy officer and surveyor. Life Stanley was born in Alderley, Cheshire, the son of Edward Stanley, rector of Alderley and later Bishop of Norwich. A brother w ...

RN and part of the island was named Port Albany (). A bêche-de-mer station was established on the island in 1862 by C. Edwards and J. Frazer. After an inspection by Queensland's Governor Bowen, a settlement was planned for the island but it was built instead on the adjacent mainland in 1863 at Somerset, Queensland. There was still a trochus shell farm there in 1995, and there is now an operational pearl farm. The wreck of the RMS ''Quetta'', a passenger ship that sank in 1890, lies just off Albany Island. The ship hit an uncharted rock and sank in a very short time killing 134 people.

History

Djagaraga (also known as Yadhaigana, Dyagaraga and Yagulleone) is of the languages from the tip of Cape York. The language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the

Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council The Northern Peninsula Area Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia, covering areas on the northwestern coast of Cape York Peninsula. It was created in March 2008 out of three Aboriginal Shires and two autonomous Isl ...

. Traditionally the language was spoken on Eastern Cape York particularly the localities of Albany Island and

Mount Adolphus Island Mount Adolphus Island, also called ''Muri'' or ''Mori'' in the native language, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands archipelago that is located at the very tip of Cape York Peninsula on the northern side of the Adolphus Channel, across fr ...

. The island was named Albany in 1846 by Lieutenant Yule of HMS Rattlesnake, in honour of Frederick, Duke of Albany, who was the brother of King George IV. Albany Island is also closely associated with one of Queensland's worst maritime disasters, this being the tragic sinking of the

RMS Quetta RMS ''Quetta'' was a Royal Mail Ship that was wrecked on the Far North Queensland coast of Australia on 28 February 1890. ''Quetta''s sinking killed 134 of the 292 people on board, making it one of Queensland's biggest maritime catastrophes. It ...

. The passenger ship Quetta, struck an uncharted rock in the Adolphus Channel, just off Albany Island in 1890, with the loss of 134 people.

Footnotes

References

* Bowen, George (1864). “New Settlement at Cape York, and Survey within Great Barrier Reef,” ''Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London'', Vol. 8, No. 4 (1863–1864), pp. 114–121. * Firth, Dawn W. and Clifford B. (1995). ''Cape York Peninsula''. Reed Books. . * Ganter, Regina (1994). ''The Pearl-Shellers of Torres Strait''. Melbourne University Press. . * Moore, David R. (1979). ''Islanders and Aborigines at Cape York''. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. (hard cover); (soft cover). USA edition: (hard cover); (soft cover). {{Torres Strait , state=autocollapse Torres Strait Islands Islands of Far North Queensland Great Barrier Reef Marine Park