Policing the Torres Strait, Mabuiag (Gumu) Island
Today we visit Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait, one of 15 outer island communities that fall within the Thursday Island Division.
Access to Mabuiag is by a 40 minute flight on the police air wing or four hours by boat.
Approaching Mabuiag by police air wing
Mabuiag (formerly known as Jervis Island or traditionally known as Gumu), is an island in the Bellevue Islands, 100km north of Thursday Island.
It lies in the Napoleon Passage and Arnolds Passage of Torres Strait and is about half way between main land Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The airstrip on Mabuiag is the shortest in the Torres Strait with wind turbulence providing that extra thrill ride when approaching and landing.
Police air wing lives up to its “white knuckle airline” title when flying into this island.
It’s not unusual to see small planes being pushed back onto the airstrip from the beach at the end of the strip.
Police air wing on Mabuiag which has the shortest airstrip in the Torres Strait
The island has a permanent population of 250 residents and the people are one of the Melanesian Torres Strait Islander populations.
Like the larger Moa and Badu Islands to the south, Mabuiag is part of the old, submerged land bridge that ran from Cape York to Papua New Guinea.
The township on Mabuiag
The area surrounding Mabuiag has many reefs that make navigating quite difficult.
1800’s cannon found on a reef off Mabuiag
Subsequently there are hundreds of ship wrecks littered around the island dating back to the mid 1800’s.
An old sailing boat cannon from the 1800’s was found by divers close by and is displayed on one of the main streets on Mabuiag.
Mabuiag has a very low crime rate, due to the excellent work by the two residential Torres Strait Island Police Support Officers (TSIPSO), TSIPSO Senior Sergeant Patterson Bani and TSIPSO Senior Constable Josh Saylor.
The TSIPSO are responsible for liaising between the community and police and are essential for maintaining and monitoring law and order within the communities.
TSIPSO Senior Sergeant Patterson Bani and Constable Justin Heinemann on Mabuiag
For police from Thursday Island Station, attending Mabuiag gives them the opportunity to undertake more community engagement activities because of the low crime rate.
On every opportunity, police will attend the schools in the remote communities to engage with the kids through talks and even helping out with sports days and in the playground at lunch times.
The students are always enthusiastic to ask some hard hitting questions and always want to have a look at the Tasers that police carry.
Recently Senior Constable Tenelle Ashcroft and Constable Justin Heinemann where on Mabuiag and were able to visit the local primary school where they were inundated with questions on the what it’s like to be a police officer.
Police from Thursday Island patrol Mabuiag Island regularly by police air wing and also during the seven day boat patrols on board the Police Vessel Handran, which goes out to different island clusters each fortnight. This is an island rich in culture and spectacular scenery.
The main boat ramp and boat docking for Mabuiag Is
Source: Cairns Crime Alert
