The closest inhabited place is Kalumburu located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the east of the island group.
[1] The archipelago was named by the Baudin expedition on 16 August 1801 after Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France.
The archipelago is made up of the islands and islets lying off a stretch of 150 kilometres (93 mi) of coastline, roughly between Collier Bay to the south-west and Admiralty Gulf to the north-east, including islands in Admiralty Gulf itself.
[2] The islands are mostly small, and many are best described as islets or emergent rocks.
Several submerged banks and shoals are also found within the archipelago.