Palm Island is a locality consisting of an island group of 16 islands, split between the Shire of Hinchinbrook and the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island, in Queensland, 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, 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.

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.

Geography

There are 16 islands that make up the Greater Palm group, Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. 12 of them named. The islands listed from north to south, are: Pelorus Island (North Palm Island, Yanooa, Guyroogarrie) – uninhabited and privately owned Orpheus Island (Goolboddi – contains national park, research facility and tourist resort, privately owned) Albino Rock is part of Orpheus Island National Park. Curacoa Island (Noogoo or Inoogoo) Fantome Island (Eumilli) Great Palm Island (Bwgcolman) Esk Island (Soopun) Falcon Island (Carbooroo) Eclipse Island (Garoogubbee) Brisk Island (Culgarul) Barber Island (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, where extraction and fishing are regulated. Neighbouring islands outside the Palm group include Rattlesnake Island, which is used for Air Force bombing practice, and Magnetic Island, an island suburb of Townsville. The nearest island to the group is Pandora Reef.

Table 1 shows the micro-islands, known as rocks, and their Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) designations. + Table 1. Micro-islands known as Rocks in the group Island name   GBRMPA reef designation     Paluma Rock   18-056   Albino Rock (AKA White Rock)     18-057   Dido Rock   18-060   Chilcott Rocks   18-063   Hayman Rock.   <none>

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. At least 5000 people were forcibly removed to the reserve from all over Queensland, the Torres Strait 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.

Governance and settlements The locality of Palm Island falls in the federal Division of Herbert and the Electoral district of Townsville.

Local government of the islands is split: the two most northerly islands, Pelorus and Orpheus, are in the Shire of Hinchinbrook, while the other ten are in the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island. Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a 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 and are in the jurisdiction of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).

Australia Post 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 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.

+ Table 2. Islands in Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council jurisdictionBindloss, Joseph (2002) page 330NNTT map QI2005_005.jpg Island name Aboriginal name Group size Bushfire risk GBRMPA reef designation Curra-cao or Curacoa Island  Noogoo or Inoogoo major medium 18-052 Fantome Island  Eumilli major medium 18-053 Great Palm Island or Palm Island  Bwgcolman major high 18-054 Havannah Island major medium 18-065 Brisk Island  Culgarool micro-island medium shared with Falcon Island Eclipse Island  Garoogubbee micro-island not rated 18-058 Esk Island  Soopun micro-island not rated 18-059 Barber Island  Boodthean micro-island not rated 18-061 Falcon Island  Carbooroo micro-island not rated 18-062 Fly Island micro-island not rated 18-064

Climate

Lying in the tropical zone, the islands' climate is tropical and the area is vulnerable to cyclones.

History

Pre-contact The Manbarra people are the traditional owners of Great Palm and nearby islands. In Manbarra beliefs the Palm Island group were formed in the Dreamtime from the broken up fragments of an ancestral spirit, Rainbow Serpent. 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 inhabited Hinchinbrook Island.

The islands in the area were named the "Palm Isles" by explorer James Cook 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 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, 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 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, with people being sent there for perceived wrongdoing, and soon it became the largest government Aboriginal reserve 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 John Feetham.

During World War II, 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 H. E. Ryan. It was designed and built from stone by Townsville 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'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 senator Jim Keeffe. Denis Freney, writing in Tribune, 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 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 report said that the cause of death was severe internal injuries, riots 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, 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.