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Badu Island - Badhulgaw Ngurpay Lag

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Head of Campus: Paula Tweedie

Phone: (07) 4214 8444 | Fax: (07) 4069 4233

Email: the.principal@baduislass.eq.edu.au

Campus enrolment: 181 students

Year Levels: Kindy to Year 6

Community Snapshot

Population: 813*

Cluster: Near Western Islands

English Name: Mulgrave Island

Badu Island is one of the largest Torres Strait Islands and is partly covered with mounds of basaltic rocks and lightly vegetated open areas. The island is also fringed with extensive mangrove swamps.

The dialect spoken on Badu is the Mabuyag dialect which is a part of the Kala Lagaw Ya (KLY) traditional language. ​

Badu once had a feared reputation as an island of head hunters. Warfare, turtle and dugong hunting were the main occupations of Badu men until the 1870’s. Pearlers established bases on the island during the 1870’s and by the early 1880’s, the islanders were becoming dependent on wages earned as lugger crew. At the same time, the first missionaries arrived at the people’s request. At the peak of the shell industry in the late 1950’s, the Badu fleet of 13 boats employed a workforce of 200. The eventual decline of the shell trade resulted in many Badu people moving to the mainland for work.

*Source: 2016 ABS Census

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Last reviewed 11 June 2024
Last updated 11 June 2024