Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
These are the Torres Strait Islands in Far North Queensland—a cluster of roughly 270 islands, only 17 of which are inhabited. And this is the ubiquitous Torres Strait Islander flag. It is one of Australia’s official flags alongside the Aboriginal and national flags, though unlike the national flag, it represents only a very small sliver of the population.
Just quickly, before we start: Queensland Health has a terminology guide under the banner of “Cultural Capability,” which notes: “‘Torres Strait Islander’ must always be capitalised and should never be abbreviated, as to do so may cause offence.”
As we know, causing offence in Australia is the ultimate sin. It’s odd—for a group of people that historically never had a written language, it’s strange they would care so much about capitalisation and abbreviation.
It’s especially curious because Australians usually love abbreviations. We call ourselves Aussies, Tasmania becomes Tassie, and a tradesperson is a tradie. None of these seem to upset anyone; we are generally pretty easygoing. Imagine meeting a fireman from Brisbane and saying, “Oh, you’re that firie from Brissie!” only for them to reply, “Excuse me, I find that deeply offensive! I am a firefighter from Brisbane. How dare you abbreviate my profession and place of birth!”
We’d all have a good laugh.
So, it’s funny that when it comes to Torres Strait Islanders, we aren’t allowed to abbreviate the name in any way, lest we cause somebody to become offended.
According to the guide, even referring to someone as an “islander”—even though that’s a completely correct term in English—is strictly prohibited. How dare you imply that they are an “inhabitant of an island”!
Perhaps we all just need to lighten up a bit?
But the topic of this video, as hinted at before, is the Torres Strait Islander flag. According to the 2021 Census, the total population of the Torres Strait Islands is 4,124. Not everyone there identifies as Indigenous, though; the number of residents who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander is 3,737.
At that same time, the total population of Australia was 25,422,788. This means that the people living on the islands—the very people this flag was created for—make up roughly 0.015% of the total Australian population. That’s just a bit over one one-hundredth of a percent.
Despite this tiny percentage—and thank you to the viewer for making this point—the Torres Strait Islander flag is flown everywhere across the mainland. It’s at thousands of schools, hundreds of university and TAFE campuses, hospitals, police stations, and council buildings. It’s inside government offices, at Indigenous Health Services, and defence sites. The flag is everywhere.
It goes without saying that it’s found in places that Torres Strait Islanders, historically, would never have been able to reach. They were a seafaring island people; they wouldn’t have had the means to travel to Melbourne, for example. Yet, here we are with the flag draped across this massive continent as if they’ve conquered the place.
Obviously, there’s no official “Flag Registry” that tracks every single pole, but based on the number of schools, universities, and government buildings, I estimate there must be between 12,000 and 14,000 Torres Strait Islander flags flown every single day. As we saw, there are only about 3,737 Islanders living on the actual islands. They’re outnumbered by their own flags three-to-one. That surely must be the highest number of flags per head for any nation in the world.
Of course, some of you might be thinking there are more than just a few thousand Torres Strait Islanders in existence—meaning many people of Torres Strait Islander ancestry, or those who identify as such, live right across Australia.
According to the 2021 Census, approximately 33,765 people identify as Torres Strait Islander only, while about 36,083 identify as both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Even if we use that total of 69,848, that relatively small population still has an estimated 14,000 flags regularly flown in its honour—that’s one flag for every five people.
The expansionist Kings of old could only have dreamt of such effortless geographic saturation. This is a bit of a historical outlier, is it not? A civilisation conquering a continent not with armies, but with textile production.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
These are the Torres Strait Islands in Far North Queensland—a cluster of roughly 270 islands, only 17 of which are inhabited. And this is the ubiquitous Torres Strait Islander flag. It is one of Australia’s official flags alongside the Aboriginal and national flags, though unlike the national flag, it represents only a very small sliver of the population.
Just quickly, before we start: Queensland Health has a terminology guide under the banner of “Cultural Capability,” which notes: “‘Torres Strait Islander’ must always be capitalised and should never be abbreviated, as to do so may cause offence.”
As we know, causing offence in Australia is the ultimate sin. It’s odd—for a group of people that historically never had a written language, it’s strange they would care so much about capitalisation and abbreviation.
It’s especially curious because Australians usually love abbreviations. We call ourselves Aussies, Tasmania becomes Tassie, and a tradesperson is a tradie. None of these seem to upset anyone; we are generally pretty easygoing. Imagine meeting a fireman from Brisbane and saying, “Oh, you’re that firie from Brissie!” only for them to reply, “Excuse me, I find that deeply offensive! I am a firefighter from Brisbane. How dare you abbreviate my profession and place of birth!”
We’d all have a good laugh.
So, it’s funny that when it comes to Torres Strait Islanders, we aren’t allowed to abbreviate the name in any way, lest we cause somebody to become offended.
According to the guide, even referring to someone as an “islander”—even though that’s a completely correct term in English—is strictly prohibited. How dare you imply that they are an “inhabitant of an island”!
Perhaps we all just need to lighten up a bit?
But the topic of this video, as hinted at before, is the Torres Strait Islander flag. According to the 2021 Census, the total population of the Torres Strait Islands is 4,124. Not everyone there identifies as Indigenous, though; the number of residents who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander is 3,737.
At that same time, the total population of Australia was 25,422,788. This means that the people living on the islands—the very people this flag was created for—make up roughly 0.015% of the total Australian population. That’s just a bit over one one-hundredth of a percent.
Despite this tiny percentage—and thank you to the viewer for making this point—the Torres Strait Islander flag is flown everywhere across the mainland. It’s at thousands of schools, hundreds of university and TAFE campuses, hospitals, police stations, and council buildings. It’s inside government offices, at Indigenous Health Services, and defence sites. The flag is everywhere.
It goes without saying that it’s found in places that Torres Strait Islanders, historically, would never have been able to reach. They were a seafaring island people; they wouldn’t have had the means to travel to Melbourne, for example. Yet, here we are with the flag draped across this massive continent as if they’ve conquered the place.
Obviously, there’s no official “Flag Registry” that tracks every single pole, but based on the number of schools, universities, and government buildings, I estimate there must be between 12,000 and 14,000 Torres Strait Islander flags flown every single day. As we saw, there are only about 3,737 Islanders living on the actual islands. They’re outnumbered by their own flags three-to-one. That surely must be the highest number of flags per head for any nation in the world.
Of course, some of you might be thinking there are more than just a few thousand Torres Strait Islanders in existence—meaning many people of Torres Strait Islander ancestry, or those who identify as such, live right across Australia.
According to the 2021 Census, approximately 33,765 people identify as Torres Strait Islander only, while about 36,083 identify as both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Even if we use that total of 69,848, that relatively small population still has an estimated 14,000 flags regularly flown in its honour—that’s one flag for every five people.
The expansionist Kings of old could only have dreamt of such effortless geographic saturation. This is a bit of a historical outlier, is it not? A civilisation conquering a continent not with armies, but with textile production.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
