Keeping the stories of the “Lugger Bort” seafarers alive

The Torres Strait, between Cape York Peninsula and Papua New Guinea, is a region of more than 200 islands, rich in culture, seafaring knowledge, and a deep connection to Country and the sea. Unlike mainland colonisation, exploitation in the Torres Strait centred heavily on marine industries, such as pearling, Beche-de-mer, and trochus, rather than land alone. 

These industries drew traders, companies and governments into the region, but they also relied on the labour and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers. Under restrictive Protection Acts, people’s wages, movement and choices were controlled, and resentment over forced work and government control helped spark the 1936 New Year’s Day Maritime Strike. 

My connection to this history is personal. My grandfather, Papa Zitha, was a self-taught, multilingual and highly respected seaman in the Torres Strait and Far North Queensland shelling industry. He worked as a deep-sea pearl-shell diver, harvested trochus and bêche-de-mer, captained luggers, and trained many Aboriginal men along the Far North Queensland coast. 

His life and the stories carried by my family led me to begin the Lugger Bort journey in 2022, in. I set out to document a fast-fading part of Queensland history: the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander seafarers who worked for generations in the pearling, Beche-de-mer, and trochus industries. 

Guided by an Elders Reference Group, the project has brought together memory, photographs, museum collections, songs, dances and family stories. Meetings at the Cairns Museum helped Elders reconnect with images and records from the marine industry in which they had worked, while community gatherings created space for others to listen to the stories, contribute and remember. 

Life on the luggers demanded skill, courage and trust. Self-taught Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander divers, tenders, skippers, engineers, cooks and deckhands worked long days in dangerous waters, often from a young age. They faced sharks, storms, cramped living conditions, low wages and the constant risk of “the bends”. Yet they also carried extraordinary traditional and learned knowledge of tides, reefs, stars, weather and sea routes. 

The luggers were more than working boats. They carried families’ livelihoods, cultural exchange and living history. When crews came into port, communities gathered with traditional food, music and dance. Songs recorded places, weather, landmarks and incidents at sea, becoming maps and memories passed down through generations. 

As seafarer descendant Patrick Mills of Naghir says, “Aboriginal people have their cave paintings, Maori their Tiki, Europeans their museums. We have our songs.” Those songs and the stories behind them remind us that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples helped build Far North Queensland’s marine industry – but without the recognition they deserved. 

Lugger Bort is one way of helping those stories surface before they disappear. It honours the Elders, workers, wives, mothers and families who kept this history alive and asks us to remember the people who read the stars, worked the reefs, sang the routes and carried a legacy that still belongs to us today. 

Nerelle Nicol

The Monica Clare Research Fellowship is generously supported by The Siganto Foundation.

Read more blogs by Nerelle Nichol

• Diving Into History: Unearthing Queensland’s Forgotten Seafarers
• Bringing the ‘Lugger Bort’ story into view