Ian Burnett, Author
The reef-strewn passage between the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea remains the most hazardous of all the major Straits in the world. It is 270 kilometres long and only 150 kilometres wide, but it contains over 274 islands, islets, coral reefs, and coral cays. Its waters are full of potential hazards separated by narrow and often dangerous channels.
The Torres Strait Islanders knew these waters well because voyaging and trade were part of their lives and livelihoods, but early European explorers like Luis Vas de Torres and James Cook were forced to find their route through the Strait without any previous maps.
Early navigators such as Torres, Cook, Bligh, and Flinders contributed to the charting of this dangerous passage. However, it was not until the completion of detailed hydrographic surveys by the British Admiralty in the 1840s, the advent of steamships, and the introduction of Torres Strait Pilots that it could ultimately be used as a major shipping route.
Readers should be advised that this history will include stories of murder, mayhem, mutiny, disastrous shipwrecks, desperate voyages of survival in open boats, headhunting and hurricanes.
Bio: Ian Burnet grew up in South Gippsland, Victoria, and has a degree in Geology and Geophysics from Melbourne University. He has spent more than thirty years living, working, and travelling in Indonesia, and his books show his fascination with the diverse history of the vast archipelago to the north of Australia.
Ian is the author of seven books that relate to maritime history, the spice trade and the Indonesian archipelago. These include Spice Islands, East Indies, Archipelago – A Journey Across Indonesia, Where Australia Collides with Asia – The Epic Voyages of Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and the Origin of On The Origin of Species, The Tasman Map – The Biography of a Map, Joseph Conrad’s Eastern Voyages -Tales of Singapore and an East Borneo River, and his latest book Dangerous Passage – A Maritime History of the Torres Strait.
Details can be found on his website – www.ianburnetbooks.com.
