Torres Strait
The Torres Strait is a strait which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately 150 km (93 mi) wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland. To the north is the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who passed through the Strait in 1606.
Geography
The strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria in the west. Although it is an important international sea lane, it is very shallow (7 to 15 m water depth), and the maze of reefs and islands can make it hazardous to navigate. In the south the Endeavour Strait is located between Prince of Wales Island (Muralug) and the mainland. Shipping enters Torres Strait via the Adolphus Channel which joins to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon to the southeast. Strong tidal currents occur in the narrow channels between islands and reefs, and large submarine sand dunes migrate across the seafloor. Some 580 coral reefs, including the Warrior Reefs and Eastern Patch Reefs, cover a total area of 2,400 km2 in the region, as well as some of the most extensive seagrass beds in the world.
Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands which lie in Torres Strait, the waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea.
The islands are mostly part of Queensland, a constituent State of the Commonwealth of Australia, with a special status fitting the native (Melanesian) land rights, administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority. A few islands very close to the coast of mainland New Guinea belong to the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, most importantly Daru Island with the provincial capital, Daru.
Only 14 of the islands are inhabited, with many of the islands threatened by rising sea levels.
History
The indigenous inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands are the Torres Strait Islanders, an ethnically Melanesian people who also inhabited the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula, distinct from the Australian Aborigines who are the Indigenous Australians in the rest of the country.
Strait Island
Strait Island is a tribal reservation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union territory of India.
Description
Strait Island is a small island of 6.01 km² located 5.5 km east of Baratang Island, Great Andaman, in the Diligent Strait that separates Great Andaman from Ritchie's Archipelago. The population at the 2001 census was 42 (of which 28 were male), living in 15 households. Strait is a small, comma-shaped, and forested island, known for its caves of birds' nests and plentiful deer (though they are now rare). The settlement for the Great Andamanese, one of the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands, was built and is managed by the Andaman administration.
The Andamanese settlement was constructed like a model village in India. The Great Andamanese settlement was constructed with concrete houses in rows. The other half is occupied by welfare personnel and police quarters. There is a school for children and a small dispensary for primary health care. All around the houses are coconut palms, tamarind, and mango trees.
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