Palm Island, Queensland
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Palm Island is a
locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...
consisting of an
island group An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
of 16 islands, split between the
Shire of Hinchinbrook The Shire of Hinchinbrook is a Local government in Australia, local government area in North Queensland, Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Ingham, Queensland, Ingham, covers an area of , and has existed since its cr ...
and the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island, in
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, Australia. The locality coincides with the geographical entity known as the Palm Island group, also known as the Greater Palm group, originally named the Palm Isles. However, the term "Palm Island" is most often used to refer to the main island,
Great Palm Island Great Palm Island, usually known as Palm Island, is the largest island in the Palm Island, Queensland, Palm Islands group off North Queensland, Northern Queensland, Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal community, the ...
, the largest island in the group and the only one with a significant population of permanent residents, most of whom are Aboriginal. The island is also known by the name " Bwgcolman", meaning "one people from many groups", derived from an Aboriginal language of one of the earliest groups of Aboriginal people removed from the mainland and settled there from 1918 onwards, during its use as an
Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ...
. The term "Palm Island" is sometimes used to refer to the island group, sometimes the Aboriginal Shire, and sometimes Great Palm Island, but as most of the other islands are uninhabited, the majority of sources are actually referring to Great Palm only, or to the Aboriginal Shire Council. Orpheus Island has a tourist resort and research facility, and is the only one with a well-developed tourist industry. In the , the locality of Palm Island (incorporating all the island in the group) had a population of 2,138 people, of whom 1,918 (89.7%) identify as
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
.


Geography

There are 16 islands that make up the Greater Palm group, Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence.
12 of them named. The islands listed from north to south, are: *
Pelorus Island Pelorus Island, also known as North Palm Island, is the northernmost island of the Great Palm Island group. It is located north of Orpheus Island, and covers an area of about . Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Orpheus Island was inhabited ...
(North Palm Island, Yanooa, Guyroogarrie) – uninhabited and privately owned * Orpheus Island (Goolboddi – contains national park, research facility and tourist resort, privately owned) **
Albino Rock Albino Rock, formerly White Rock, is an islet east of Great Palm Island, part of the Greater Palm group in Queensland, Australia. The island is in the Hinchinbrook jurisdiction, and is part of Orpheus Island National Park. The surrounding ...
is part of
Orpheus Island National Park Orpheus Island National Park is a national park on Orpheus Island, in North Queensland, Australia. The Aboriginal (possibly Nyawaygi) name for this island is Goolboddi Island. It is one of the Palm Islands group, northwest of Brisbane, as is ...
. *
Curacoa Island Curacoa Island (pron. KEWR-É™-sow) is one of the islands in the Palm Islands group off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The nearest island is Great Palm Island, after which the group is named. Curacoa Island is uninhabited. The Aborigina ...
(Noogoo or Inoogoo) *
Fantome Island Fantome Island is one of the islands in the Palm Island group. It is neighboured by Great Palm Island and is north-east of Townsville, Queensland on the east coast of Australia. The island is small with an area of and is surrounded by a fri ...
(Eumilli) *
Great Palm Island Great Palm Island, usually known as Palm Island, is the largest island in the Palm Island, Queensland, Palm Islands group off North Queensland, Northern Queensland, Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal community, the ...
(Bwgcolman) *
Esk Island Esk Island is one of the small uninhabited islands in the Palm Islands group. The nearest island is Falcon Island. The Aboriginal name for the island is Soopun. Along with nine of the other islands within the Palm Islands group, it falls under ...
(Soopun) *
Falcon Island Falcon Island is one of the islands in the Palm Islands group, off the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. The nearest island is Esk Island. The Nyawaygi name of the island is ''Carbooroo''. Along with nine of the other islands within the ...
(Carbooroo) * Eclipse Island (Garoogubbee) *
Brisk Island Brisk Island is an island in Australia's Great Palm Island group. The nearest island is Great Palm Island, after which the group is named. The Nyawaygi name for Brisk Island is ''Culgarool''. Along with nine of the other islands within the Pa ...
(Culgarul) *
Barber Island Barber Island is a tiny island just south of Great Palm Island, part of the Palm Islands group in Queensland, Australia. The Aboriginal name for this island is Boodthean. Barber Island is one of the ten islands in the local government area of ...
(Boodthean) * Fly Island * Havannah Island The group was originally named the "Palm Isles" (see History, below), while other current names for the island group are the Palm Island group and the Greater Palm group. The majority of the islands are micro-islands; the most notable are Great Palm Island (the largest and only one with a permanent population), Fantome Island, and Orpheus Island. The ocean surrounding the islands is part of the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...
, where extraction and fishing are regulated. Neighbouring islands outside the Palm group include Rattlesnake Island, which is used for
Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
bombing practice, and Magnetic Island, an island suburb of
Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...
. The nearest island to the group is
Pandora Reef Pandora Reef is a low-lying island in addition to being an adjacent fringing reef. It is in Halifax Bay in Queensland, Australia. It is from the Greater Palm group. The name Pandora Reef dates back to at least 1889. The surrounding wa ...
. Table 1 shows the micro-islands, known as rocks, and their
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...
(GBRMPA) designations.


Origins

Today's population are descendants of people taken to the Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement from 1914 up to 1971. Estimates vary, but the number of tribal groups represented by the descendants (known as the Bwgcolman people) is at least 43 and has been said to represent 57 different
language groups A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics anal ...
. At least 5000 people were forcibly removed to the reserve from all over Queensland, the
Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, ˆzen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...
and Melanesian islands. The majority of the current population descend from peoples occupying the region between Bowen and Tully, from north-western Queensland, and from the
Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...
.


Governance and settlements

The locality of Palm Island falls in the federal
Division of Herbert The Division of Herbert is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the states and territories of Australia, state of Queensland. Eligible voters within the Division elect a single representative ...
and the
Electoral district of Townsville Townsville is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland. The seat is one of four within the Townsville urban area in North Queensland, and covers the Eastern and Northern suburbs of the City of Tow ...
.
Local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
of the islands is split: the two most northerly islands, Pelorus and Orpheus, are in the
Shire of Hinchinbrook The Shire of Hinchinbrook is a Local government in Australia, local government area in North Queensland, Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Ingham, Queensland, Ingham, covers an area of , and has existed since its cr ...
, while the other ten are in the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island. Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence.
Table 2 (below) shows the ten islands of the group in the jurisdiction of the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council. The remaining rocks, listed above, are owned by the
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...
and are in the jurisdiction of the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...
(GBRMPA).
Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation and also known as AusPost, is an Australian Government-State-owned enterprise, owned corporation that provides postal services throughout Australia. Australia Post's head office is loca ...
lists only one postcode for "Palm Island, QLD" (4816), which refers to the island group; there is no formal name for the settled areas of Great Palm Island. The main town has on Great Palm has schools, shops, a football club, hospital and churches. The town area, next to the jetty where the ferries dock, has no formal name, and is still called "the Mission" by some of the locals. It is referred to as "Palm Islands" on the Queensland Government place names database. In addition to the town, there are several small settlement areas to the north and south, but the roads are limited to the western side of the island. The islands within Palm Island Aboriginal Shire have alcohol restrictions: the maximum amount of alcohol a person can carry in the restricted area is of any
liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...
with a concentration of less than 4 per cent. While it is not a completely dry zone, " sly grog" sales are not permitted and penalties apply for breaches of the law. There is one licensed premises in the restricted area, the Coolgaree Bay Sports Bar and Bistro, where alcohol can only be sold for on-premises or off-premises consumption to a patron with a valid membership card.


Climate

Lying in the
tropical zone The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
, the islands' climate is
tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
and the area is vulnerable to
cyclones In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...
.


History


Pre-contact

The Manbarra people are the
traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...
of Great Palm and nearby islands. In Manbarra beliefs the Palm Island group were formed in the
Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...
from the broken up fragments of an ancestral spirit,
Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the Creator deity, creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many List of Australian Aboriginal group names, different Aborigina ...
. Manbarra (also known as Wulgurukaba) is a language of the Palm Island region, which lies within the local government boundaries of the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council. In the Hinchinbrook shire, the traditional owners of Orpheus Island were the Nywaigi, while the
Warakamai The Warrgamay people, also spelt Warakamai, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Language Their language, Warrgamay language, Warrgamay, is now language extinction, extinct. It was a variety of Dyirbalic languages, Dy ...
inhabited Hinchinbrook Island. The islands in the area were named the "Palm Isles" by explorer
James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...
in 1770 as he sailed up the eastern coast of Australia on his first voyage. It is estimated that the population of the island at the time of Cook's visit was about 200 Manbarra people. Cook sent some of his men to Palm Island and "they returned on board having met with nothing worth observing". In 1819, Captain
Phillip Parker King Phillip Parker King (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Josepha King ''née'' Coo ...
landed on one of the islands and recorded seeing recently occupied circular huts, and canoes nearby their landing place.


(Great) Palm Island history

Great Palm Island has always been the most populated island. It is estimated that the population of the island at the time of Cook's 1770 visit was about 200 people. From the 1850s, locals were enticed away to join bêche-de-mer and pearling enterprises with Europeans and Japanese, and by the end of the 19th century the population had been reduced to about 50. In 1914, the Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement was created by the
Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...
, and relocated people from 1918 all over Queensland, starting with Hull River Mission residents after the mission was destroyed by a cyclone. People from up to 57
language groups A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics anal ...
were moved there. In the first two decades of its existence, the number of residents rose from 200 to 1,630. It was regarded as a
penal settlement A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer t ...
, with people being sent there for perceived wrongdoing, and soon it became the largest government
Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ...
in Queensland. St George's Anglican Church was built in 1931 from palm leaves and grass (approx ). On Wednesday 4 July 1935, a new timber St George's Anglican Church was opened and dedicated by
Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
John Feetham. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the Naval Air Station Palm Island (aka Palm Island Airfield) was built at Wallaby Point in 1943 by the US Navy’s 55 Construction Battalion (Seabees). It was a seaplane maintenance facility with a concrete slipway which was predominantly used to serve PBY Catalina flying boats. St Anthony's Catholic Church in the Parish of St Anne was blessed and opened on Sunday 6 August 1961 by
Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
H. E. Ryan. It was designed and built from stone by
Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...
consulting engineers, Ariotti and Norman. It is at 26 Banfield Drive (within the grounds of the Catholic school, ). The women's dormitory closed in 1967 and was demolished in 1969. The children's dormitories were officially closed on 5 December 1975.


1978: Sacking of the Aboriginal Council

The Aboriginal Council of Palm Island was sacked by
Joh Bjelke-Petersen Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005) was an Australian politician and farmer who served as premier of Queensland between 1968 and 1987, for almost 20 years, as state leader of the National Party (earlier known as the C ...
's government in July 1978. This followed moves by the Queensland Government to hand over control of Palm Island to Townsville Council, which was opposed by islanders in a petition instigated by
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
senator Jim Keeffe. Denis Freney, writing in ''
Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...
'', reported that the decision was made based on a counter-petition run by the government which contained many signatures of Aboriginal people which had been forged or obtained by duplicity, and was "part of a plan by the Bjelke-Petersen government to ride roughshod over the wishes of the 1305 residents of the island and open it up to property speculators and tourist development". He wrote that both petitions contained many of the same people's signatures.


1999: Compensation by Queensland Government for underpaid wages

In 1999 the Queensland Government apologised and gave compensation each to former Palm Islander employees in recompense for underpaid wages between 1975 and 1986. The payment was ordered by the
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body ...
in a case first brought to the commission by seven Palm Islanders in 1986.


2004: Death in custody and consequences

On 19 November 2004, Palm Island resident Mulrunji (known as Cameron Doomadgee while alive), aged 36 or 37, died in a police cell on Palm Island, one hour after being picked up for allegedly causing a public nuisance. After the
post-mortem An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death ...
report said that the cause of death was severe internal injuries,
riot A riot or mob violence is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The p ...
s occurred, and as a result, a number of people were charged with offences. Two coronial inquests were held, a police officer was tried for
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
, but acquitted on 20 June 2007. The Crime and Misconduct Commission examined police relations in Queensland and as part of this, conducted an inquiry into police handling of the Mulrunji investigation. In 2010 it reported that more work was needed on police relations, while noting that some improvement had occurred, recommending 51 specific actions. The police raids and behaviour following the riot were found in December 2016 to have breached the ''
Racial Discrimination Act 1975 The ''Racial Discrimination Act 1975'' (Cth). is an Act of the Australian Parliament, which was enacted on 11 June 1975 and passed by the Whitlam government. The Act makes racial discrimination in certain contexts unlawful in Australia, and al ...
'', with a record class action settlement of awarded to victims in May 2018. The raids were found by the court to be "racist" and "unnecessary, disproportionate" with police having "acted in these ways because they were dealing with an Aboriginal community".


Fantome Island medical facilities (1926–1973)

In 1926 a
lock hospital A lock hospital was an establishment that specialised in treating venereal disease, sexually transmitted diseases. They operated in Britain and its colonies and territories from the 18th century to the 20th. History The military had a close ...
was built on
Fantome Island Fantome Island is one of the islands in the Palm Island group. It is neighboured by Great Palm Island and is north-east of Townsville, Queensland on the east coast of Australia. The island is small with an area of and is surrounded by a fri ...
; Aboriginal people were sent there mainly for treatment of
sexually transmitted diseases A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, oral ...
. In 1937 Fantome Island became a medical clearing station, where Aboriginal people sent to Palm Island were examined and treated if necessary. A
leprosarium A leper colony, also known by #Names, many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. ''Mycobacterium leprae, M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believ ...
was established on Fantome in 1939. The hospital was closed in 1945, and the leprosarium in 1973, when the inhabitants were moved to (Great) Palm Island.


2004: Legal action relating to pearl farming

Zen Pearls Pty Ltd and Indian Pacific Pearls Pty Ltd (both controlled by Michael Crimp) established pearl farms in 1998 with the permission of the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...
(which controls the sea waters around the islands), despite the opposition of, at least some, of the people of Palm Island. On 24 September 1998 the Manbarra elders passed a resolution opposing the farms on the basis of;
"the historical and cultural significance of the Juno Bay site for both the Manbarra and Bwgcolman Peoples, the sense of trespass on
traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...
hip rights, concerns that the cultural connection to the area would slip away and a strong feeling that the provision of a small number of employment opportunities offered by the pearling operations would not adequately compensate the damage to cultural values."
Subsequently, the Park Authority refused to extend the pearl farming permits and Crimp took action before the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was an Australian tribunal that conducted independent merits review of administrative decisions made under Commonwealth laws of the Australian Government. The AAT reviewed decisions made by Australian G ...
to have this decision reversed. On 15 March 2004 the Tribunal agreed that the permits should be terminated but allowed the existing pearling operations to continue to 1 December 2005. This decision was substantially upheld by the Federal Court on 21 October 2004.


Demographics

The Indigenous population generally identify with either the Bwgcolman (descendants of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname) Torres (sometimes Torrez or Torrès) is a surname in the Catalan language, Catalan, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Spanish language, Spanish languages, meaning "towers". History A surname der ...
removed to Palm Island from throughout Queensland by the authorities, or Manbarra (original inhabitants) people. , the community consisted of approximately 42
Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
and
Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...
clan or family groups. In the , the locality of Palm Island had a population of 2,455 people, of whom 74.5% identify as Australian Aboriginal and 12.8% identify as Torres Strait Islander. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License The Palm Island community was younger than Australians as a whole, with 32.0% under 15 and only 3.3% over 64, and they were more religious. The most common responses for religion were Catholic 50.4%, Anglican 19.4%, Other Protestant 8.5%, Baptist 5.0% (total 91.2% Christian) and No Religion 8.1% (compared with 29.2% for Queensland). 92.2% of respondents reported speaking only English at home (compared with 81.2% for Queensland), the next most common being Yumplatok (
Torres Strait Creole Torres Strait Creole (), also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language (a variety of Pidgin ...
) at 0.2%. 702 people were in the available
workforce In macroeconomics, the workforce or labour force is the sum of people either working (i.e., the employed) or looking for work (i.e., the unemployed): \text = \text + \text Those neither working in the marketplace nor looking for work are out ...
: of these, 38.6% were employed full-time, 28.3% were employed part-time and 29.1% were unemployed. The median weekly personal income for people aged 15 years and over was (compared with in Queensland). 93.8% of occupied private dwellings were rented. Level of education achieved was much lower than Queensland as a whole, with only a tiny number having any higher or
further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...
. In the , the locality of Palm Island had a population of 2,138 people, of whom 1,918 (89.7%) identify as
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
.


Education

Palm Island Settlement State School opened in 1926, but closed in 1927. A mission school operated on the island in 1930s. In 1962, Palm Island Settlement School opened, being renamed Palm Island State School, and in 1994 was renamed Bwgcolman Community School. The Sisters of Our Lady Help of Christians established St Michael's Catholic Convent in 1934. They established a temporary Catholic school in October 1934 with 97 students, but a lack of funds prevented the establishment of a permanent Catholic school until 1938. St Michael's Catholic School was blessed on Sunday 24 July 1938 by the
Apostolic Delegate An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...
Giovanni (John) Panico. In 1945, the Sisters of Our Lady Help of Christians were replaced by the
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary are a Roman Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women founded by Mother Mary of the Passion (born Hélène Marie Philippine de Chappotin de Neuville, 1839–190 ...
. In 1969, the school was relocated as it was in the way of the development of the airport. From 1979 to 1991, the school was under
lay Lay or LAY may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada * Lay, Loire, a French commune *Lay (river), France * Lay, Iran, a village * Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community * Lay Dam, Alaba ...
leadership, before the
Sisters of the Good Samaritan The Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, colloquially known as the "Good Sams", is a Roman Catholic congregation of religious women commenced by Bede Polding, OSB, Australia’s first Catholic bishop, in Sydney in 1857. The congrega ...
took over in 1992. Palm Island Provisional School opened in 1938 for the children of the white officials on the island. It closed in 1970. As at 2022, there are two schools on Palm Island, both on Great Palm Island. Bwgcolman Community School is an Indigenous community primary and secondary (Early Childhood-12) school for boys and girls at Creek Road (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 249 students with 30 teachers and 28 non-teaching staff (23 full-time equivalent). It includes a
special education Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...
program. St Michael's Catholic School is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Banfield Highway (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 101 students with 8 teachers and 13 non-teaching staff (12 full-time equivalent). Bwgcolman Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC) is owned and operated by the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council (PIASC), providing a community space that builds community capacity through combining library services with a range of training, learning and information activities. These activities enable access to information knowledge and culture, developing the capacity of community members to participate in social and economic opportunities. The IKC has played a vital role as a historical information centre, connecting local community, and visitors with historical connections, with family history records.


Transport

Sealink Queensland runs a
ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
every day from Townsville to Great Palm Island each day of the week except Tuesday, with the journey taking around an hour and 15 minutes. There is also a daily ferry and barge from Lucinda. Palm Island Airport is on Great Palm Island and is operated by the shire council. Hinterland Aviation operates several flights on each weekday between 7am and 4:30pm, and Townsville Helicopters operates on-demand
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
flights to and from Palm Island, also from Townsville Airport. There is a daily scheduled helicopter flight from Townsville to the luxury resort on Orpheus Island and back, and private helicopter charter flights are available from Townsville,
Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...
or other nearby facilities.


Tourism

In the locality of Palm Island, only Orpheus Island has a well-developed tourist industry, based around a private luxury resort, the Orpheus Island Lodge. Some attempts have been made to develop a tourist industry on Great Palm Island, but these have met with limited success. Although the island has
tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...
and is rich in diverse
flora and fauna An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been pro ...
, is close to the Great Barrier Reef and its waters abound with
tropical fish Tropical fish are fish found in aquatic tropical environments around the world. Fishkeepers often keep tropical fish in freshwater and saltwater aquariums. The term "tropical fish" is not a taxonomic group, but rather is a general term for f ...
, making it an ideal spot for eco-tourism, there have been concerns owing to its troubled history and social problems, and its residents need to be ready to embrace the idea of a possible flood of visitors. There are, however some facilities and accommodation on the large island for tourists, such as Klub Kuda. The Palm Island Motel is operated by the council.


Notable people


The Clays

Iris Clay (1936–1979) and her husband Frederick William (Fred, or Freddie) Clay (1927–1983) were Indigenous leaders and activists who fought for equality for the people of Palm Island. Iris worked for the Aboriginal Legal Service on Palm Island, and was a founding member as well as director of
Aboriginal Hostels Limited Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), the oldest inhabitants of central Italy in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of sev ...
.PDF
"Freddie and Ivy (sic) Clay" were recorded as having been moved to Palm Island in 1935 from
Cloncurry Cloncurry is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. It is informally known by local people as The Curry. Cloncurry is the administrative centre of the Shire of Cloncurry. Cloncurry is known as the ''Friendl ...
. Ivy arrived with her parents and some, but not all, of her siblings in the 1930s. At the age of 15, Fred escaped to the mainland, and got as far as Ingham before he was captured at gunpoint and returned to the reserve. Fred became a
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...
around 1950, participating in a match at the Brisbane Stadium in May 1950 (recorded as aged 19?). He was an activist by 1969, when Aboriginal people were not allowed on the main street. Fred became a councillor on Palm Island Council, including a stint as chairman from 1973 to 1974. During this time, the council sought to obtain federal government funding so that Palm Islanders could run their own affairs, and develop the island's economy themselves, instead of decisions about the people coming under Queensland's oppressive ''Aborigines Act 1971'' and the ''Torres Strait Islanders Act 1971''. He was president of the council at the time of its sacking by the Bjelke-Petersen government in July 1978, and later deported from the island, along with Bill Rosser (see below). Clay Street in the suburb of Bonner, Australian Capital Territory, was named in honour of Iris and Fred Clay in 2009. In 2014, the Frederick William Clay Park was opened on the foreshore of the town on Palm Island.


Bill Rosser

Bill Rosser, aka B. R. Rosser (13 May 1927 – May 2002), author of ''This is Palm Island'' (1978), ''Return to Palm Island'' (1994) and many other books, was also a
union organiser A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. In some unions, the organizer's role is to recruit groups of workers under the organizing ...
. He visited Palm Island at the invitation of Iris Clay (whom he had met at the
Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), founded in Adelaide, South Australia, as the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) on 16 February 1958, was a civil rights organisation whic ...
in Townsville) in 1974, and was shocked at the extent to which the life of Aboriginal people was prescribed by the Queensland laws. Rosser, Fred Clay and others tried started a newsletter called ''
Smoke Signal The smoke signal is one of the oldest forms of long-distance communication. It is a form of visual communication used over a long distance. In general smoke signals are used to transmit news, signal danger, or to gather people to a common area. ...
'' (aka ''Palm Island Smoke Signal'') in 1974, describing the life of Aboriginal people under the current legislation. The newsletter ran for at least 12 issues.PDF
Clay and Rosser were subsequently deported from the island. Rosser later produced another publication for Aboriginal people, called ''Black Knight'', in
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
(1975).


References


Citations


Sources

* '' * *


External links


Palm Island, the island of sunshine ca. 1952
silent 16mm film footage of the environment and life on Palm Island in 1952. Held in
State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

Palm Island & our people: digital story
State Library of Queensland
Palm Island & Our People oral histories
State Library of Queensland
Alf Wilson photographs of Palm Island and area events
State Library of Queensland
Hamish Cairns Palm Island photographs 2008-2013
State Library of Queensland {{authority control Townsville Aboriginal communities in Queensland Queensland in World War II Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island Shire of Hinchinbrook Localities in Queensland Far North Queensland