[5] Broughton Island was seen by James Cook commanding HM Bark Endeavour on 11 May 1770: he mistook it for a headland and called it Black Head.

[6] After its insularity was discovered, it was renamed Broughton Islands, and so appears on the 1852 Admiralty chart, Australia, East Coast.

[8][9] Stokes appears to have named the island and bay after Broughton and his ship, perhaps on the advice of his friend, Phillip Parker King, who was then residing at Tahlee in Port Stephens and had surveyed the coast in a private capacity.

[7][10] The island was used between 1905 and 1907 in regards to testing of biological controls on feral rabbits, by French-based Polish biologist Jean Danysz (1860–1928).

Wedge-tailed shearwaters, known locally as "muttonbirds", nest on the island, as well as Australian little penguins, close to the northern limit of their range.