Badu Island

Badu or Badu Island, pronounced in English, in Kala Lagaw Ya Badhu, is an island in the Torres Strait 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia.

Badu or Badu Island, pronounced in English, in Kala Lagaw Ya Badhu, is an island in the Torres Strait 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia. Badu Island is also a locality in the Torres Strait Island Region, and Wakaid is the only town, located on the south-east coast. This island is one of the Torres Strait Islands. The language of Badu is Kala Lagaw Ya.

The Mura Badulgal Corporation administers land on behalf of the Badulgal people. The Badulgal people’s ownership of Badu and surrounding islands in the Torres Strait was recognised in a native title determination on 1 February 2014, when the Queensland Government handed over to the Badhulgal traditional owners freehold title to 9,836 hectares (24,310 acres) of land.

In the 2016 census, Badu Island had a population of 813 people.

Kala Lagaw Ya is one of the languages of the Torres Strait. Kala Lagaw Ya is the traditional language used on the Western and Central islands of the Torres Strait. The Kala Lagaw Ya language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Torres Shire Council.In 1606, Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, navigating it, along New Guinea's southern coast.Warfare, farming, fishing, canoe building, house building, turtle and dugong hunting and a host of other activities were the main occupations of Badu men until the 1870s. However, headhunting ceased with the adoption of Christianity.Pearlers established bases on the island during the 1870s and by the early 1880s the islanders were becoming dependent on wages earned as lugger crews. At the same time, the first missionaries arrived. At the peak of the shell industry in the late 1950s, the Badu fleet of 13 boats employed a workforce of 200 providing work for many men, even from other islands as well. Once the shell trade declined, many people moved to the mainland for workBadu Island State School opened on 29 January 1905.