Iama

Iama Island (also Yama, Yama or Turtle-backed Island) is an island of the Bourke Isles, 100km northeast of Thursday Island. The area measures about two square kilometres.

The original inhabitants traded and fought widely in their sailing canoes. In 1792, they came aboard William Bligh’s two ships seeking iron. Bligh named Tudu ‘Warrior Island’ after an attack they later made.

The London Missionary Society established a station at Iama’s western end establishing a permanent village with people settling around the mission.

Many of the men took jobs on pearling luggers and a pearling station operated on Tudu during the 1870s. Pacific Islanders working at Nagi Station later settled on Iama. During the WWII, many Iama men enlisted in the army.

An airstrip was built in 1974 and the Island’s connection to the Torres Strait telephone exchange occurred in 1980.

Iama has provided the Torres Strait with important political leaders including:

• Getano Lui Senior (grandson of the first LMS teacher, Lui Getano Lifu)
• Getano Lui Junior, former Chairman of the Island Coordinating Council.

Iama Island also has interesting pre-history records found in local legends in Papua and the Torres Strait.