From the jetty at Seisia, near the top of Cape York, it is 37 kilometres by boat to Thursday Island, the town at the centre of the Torres Strait. One company, Peddells, runs the scheduled service across, and from October 2026 it sails on three days a week, twice each day.
Transcribed on 25 September 2026 from Peddells' monthly schedule PDFs for September 2026 to March 2027; the same four times appear in all seven months Peddells Thursday Island Tours – ferry schedules, September 2026 to March 2027 (PDF) · 2026-09-25
Seisia lies near the top of Cape York, within the Northern Peninsula Area, facing out over the islands of the Torres Strait. Thursday Island, which its people call Waibene, is 37 kilometres away by the ferry's route: the administrative and commercial centre of the strait, with the hospital, schools, shops, hotels and government offices that a town of a few thousand people gathers around it. For anyone who has driven all the way up the Cape, the passenger boat from Seisia jetty is how you carry on.
This page is about that mainland crossing. The other boat people mean when they say 'Thursday Island ferry' is the short hop between Thursday Island and the airport on Horn Island, which a different company runs from a different wharf; that one has its own page. The Seisia service belongs to Peddells Thursday Island Tours, a local Indigenous family-owned company based on the island, and the Queensland government names it as one of the ferry companies it holds contracts with. That contract is why a Queensland concession card halves the fare.
The pattern follows the season. Until the end of September the boat crosses twice a day from Monday to Friday; from October to March the monthly schedules drop to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, still twice a day. Each crossing takes about an hour and ten minutes, and in both seasons the timetable is set from the island end: first boat off Thursday Island at 06:30, back from Seisia at 08:00, and the same again in the afternoon at 14:30 and 15:50.
Peddells prices the crossing simply: a full adult fare over 14, half of it for children from 5 to 14 and for concession card holders, nothing for children under 5, and a return at exactly twice the single. The concession is half price because it follows the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads list of approved cards, which gives 50% off to pensioner, seniors and Department of Veterans' Affairs card holders, among others; the Health Care Card and Seniors Business Discount Card are not on it.
These fares come from Peddells' price page, the only place they are published, and they are marked valid to 31 October 2026. For travel after that, check the fare in the booking system before you rely on these figures.
| Adult over 14, one way | $ 72 |
| Adult over 14, return | $ 144 |
| Child 5–14 or concession, one way | $ 36 |
| Child 5–14 or concession, return | $ 72 |
| Infant 0–4 | Free |
| Adult, one way | $ 112 |
| Adult, return | $ 184 |
| Concession, one way | $ 76 |
| Concession, return | $ 112 |
| Child 5–14, one way | $ 56 |
| Child 5–14, return | $ 92 |
Peddells fares 'valid 01/04/2026 to 31/10/2026', read on 25 September 2026; no surcharge or levy applying at that date Peddells Thursday Island Tours – Ferry prices · 2026-09-25
Seisia jetty and Engineers Jetty are about 33 kilometres apart in a straight line, and Peddells gives the distance by sea as 37 kilometres. The course runs north-west from the Cape towards the inner island group of the strait, the cluster that Thursday Island serves as its town centre, and the operator allows an hour and ten minutes for it, conditions permitting. On the map, the airport on Horn Island sits just east of Thursday Island, which is why the boat across to Horn Island is such a short hop by comparison.
There is no ticket office to fall back on at this end. Peddells has gone cashless and wants every passenger booked and paid online before reaching the jetty, with the ticket ready to show at the gangway, and a concession card if you are claiming one. Luggage is your own job: carry it to the gangway and point it out to the crew as you board, because anything left elsewhere on the jetty may not be loaded.
Peddells' office and gift store are on the jetty itself, open Monday to Friday from 9am to 12 noon and 1pm to 2.30pm and closed on public holidays. Torres Shire Council lists the company at Engineers Wharf, the same place under a slightly different name. The Gab Titui Cultural Centre is a few steps from the jetty. The boats to Horn Island leave from a different wharf and belong to a different operator.
Commonwealth biosecurity law controls goods moving from the Torres Strait to the mainland. Fresh fruit and vegetables, live plants, soil, meat and dairy products that are not canned, eggs and untreated animal products all need a permit from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Its Thursday Island office is on 07 4212 0185, and spot checks happen.
Apart from assistance animals, dogs and cats must travel in your own suitable cage, and Peddells charges a carriage fee. Heading back to the mainland, cats and dogs also need a biosecurity permit, applied for online at least seven days before departure, after a flea and tick treatment.
Personal luggage is one suitcase or overnight bag per passenger, up to 15 kg. Nothing over a metre long is carried, glass bottles are not allowed on board, and shopping, eskies of meat and tool boxes count as freight, which is paid for separately.
Be at the gangway 15 minutes before departure. Peddells treats late passengers as no-shows and may resell the seat, and it warns that a full ferry can depart before the advertised time.
Queensland law bans alcohol, smoking and vaping on public transport, and anyone heading to Cape York is bound by the Northern Peninsula Area's alcohol management plan, so check what you may carry before you pack.
The service is built around people who live in the strait. Peddells describes it as the only year-round scheduled crossing from Cape York to Thursday Island, and its luggage rules show who uses it: shopping delivered to the jetty, an esky of meat, a parcel sent as freight. For a visitor coming up from the Cape, the result is a same-day trip of roughly five hours on the island, off the 08:00 from Seisia and back on the 14:30. That is the shape of Peddells' own day ticket too, which adds a guided bus tour of the island and its museum.
Seisia's name is itself a record of the strait. Queensland's place names register explains it as an acronym made from the first letters of the families who moved from Saibai Island to Red Island Point in 1947: Sagaukaz, Elu, Isua, Sunai, Ibuai and Aken. Saibai lies 3.6 kilometres from Papua New Guinea, and that closeness is behind the one rule on this crossing that is not the ferry company's: what you may carry south to the mainland. The boat from Darwin to the Tiwi Islands is the other crossing on this site where the rules of the place you land in matter as much as the timetable.
No. Peddells runs Seisia on the Cape York mainland to Thursday Island, an hour and ten minutes each way. The Horn Island boat is a separate, much shorter crossing between Thursday Island and the airport island, run by a different company from a different wharf.
Yes, on a sailing day. Take the 08:00 from Seisia and come back on the 14:30 from Thursday Island, which gives you roughly five hours on the island. Peddells sells a day ticket that adds a guided bus tour: $184 return for an adult.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from October 2026 through at least March 2027, with two crossings each way on each of those days. It does not run on public holidays such as the King's Birthday on 5 October, 25 and 28 December, or Good Friday.
$72 one way or $144 return for an adult over 14. Children from 5 to 14 and holders of an approved Queensland concession card pay $36 one way, and children under 5 travel free. Those fares are marked valid to 31 October 2026.
Yes, if it is on the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads list Peddells applies: pensioner concession, seniors and Veterans' Affairs cards qualify for half fare. The Health Care Card does not, and the discount has to be claimed when you buy the ticket.
Not without a permit. Moving fresh fruit and vegetables, uncanned meat and dairy, eggs, plants or soil south from the Torres Strait needs a permit from the Commonwealth agriculture department, whose Thursday Island office is on 07 4212 0185.
You risk losing the seat and the fare. Boarding is 15 minutes before departure, late passengers can be treated as no-shows, and no-show fares are non-refundable. A full ferry may also leave before its advertised time.