Coconut Island, Poruma Island, or Puruma in the local language, is an island in the Great North East Channel near Cumberland Passage, Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. One of the Torres Strait Islands, Coconut Island is northeast of Thursday Island. Administratively, Coconut Island is a town and Poruma Island is the locality within the Shire of Torres. The ancestors of Coconut Island built their houses out of grass, coconut leaves and trees that floated down from the Fly River jungles of Papua New Guinea. The islands have sea turtle hatcheries, bird life, giant clam ground, huge palms, World War II relics and massive sand flats. Language The language of Poruma (locally known as Puruma) is the Kulkalgau Ya dialect of Kalau Lagau Ya. Poruma, also known as Coconut Island, is situated in the central island group of the Torres Strait. It is a narrow coral island approximately 1.4 km long and 400m wide, bounded by shallow, fringing coral reefs. The Torres Strait Islander people of Poruma are of Melanesian origin and lived in village communities following traditional patterns of hunting, fishing and trade for many thousands of years before contact was made with the first European visitors to the region. The Traditional Owners of Poruma are the Billy and Fauid (Fy-Hood) families. History In the 1860s, beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) and pearling boats began working the reefs of Torres Strait. An unnamed Frenchman and an operator named Colin Thomson are believed to have harvested the reefs surrounding Poruma in the 1860s. Another operator named Captain Walton began employing men from Poruma to work as divers and crew on his vessels in the early 1870s. An Englishman named George Pearson operated a pearling station on Poruma in the 1870s and a semi-permanent floating beche-de-mer station was established near the island around 1872. In 1872, the Queensland Government sought to extend its jurisdiction and requested the support of the British Government. Letters Patent were issued by the British Government in 1872 creating a new boundary for the colony, which encompassed all islands within a 60 nautical mile radius of the coast of Queensland. This boundary was further extended to 96 km by the Queensland Coast Islands Act 1879 (Qld) and included the islands of Boigu, Erub, Mer and Saibai, which lay beyond the previous 60 nautical mile limit. The new legislation enabled the Queensland Government to control and regulate bases for the beche-de-mer and