Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00074:reg:2023:p10
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00074
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2023 (pt 10/15)
Character Range: 25642–28348

was no long-term inhabitation of the Palilag, it is understood the island was regularly visited and used as fishing grounds both before, during and after European settlement. At least two fish traps have been recorded on Palilag, one being the Bertie Bay fish trap.[x] Pearling began in the Torres Strait in 1868, and by 1877, 16 pearling firms were operating on Thursday Island. Palilag was one of the key bases for the Torres Strait pearling industry, and the activity became cemented in the culture of the region. Following the establishment of the lightstation, visits to the island continued.

Early European history
The Torres Strait was named after the Spanish captain, Luis Vaz de Torres, who sailed through the Straits in 1606 on his way to the Philippines. Individual islands retained their traditional names, but also acquired European names in the years following de Torres's exploration. Prominent European explorers such as the navigator Captain James Cook, Vice-Admiral William Bligh and the navigator Captain Matthew Flinders sailed through the Straits in the late eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.

Goods Island was given its European name by Flinders after Peter Good, the botanical gardener on board his vessel the Investigator during the 1802 voyage. Over time, the name 'Goods' was misspelt as 'Goode' and the island is referred to as such in literature throughout the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

In Flinders' account of Goods Island, he wrote:

    "In the morning of Nov. 2, the wind being more moderate and at E. S. E., we steered between Hammond's Island and the north-western reef, with soundings from 6 to 9 fathoms. Another island appeared beyond Hammond's, to the south- west, which, as it had no name, I called Good's Island, after Mr. Good, the botanical gardener; and we hauled up for it, passing a rock and a small reef between the two. On seeing an extensive shoal ahead, which would have carried us off the land to go round it, we anchored in 7 fathoms, dead coral and shells, with the north end of Hammond's Island bearing N. 64° E., four or five miles. The botanical gentlemen landed on Good's Island; and in the afternoon I took these bearings amongst others, from a hill near its south-west end.
    The ship, distant 1¼ miles N. 58° 0' W. Wallis' Isles, over the Shoal Cape of Bligh, S. 23 5 W. Booby Isle, centre,              S. 80 0 W.
    Northern isles, the westernmost visible, N. 28° 10' to 24 5 W.
    Hawkesbury Island, N. 9 15 to 4 0 W. North-west reef, its apparent termination, N. 38 50 W."[xi]

Vessels regularly passed through the Torres Strait in the first half of the nineteenth century, increasingly so after Philip Parker