It is neighboured by Great Palm Island and is 65 km (40 mi) north-east of Townsville, Queensland on the east coast of Australia.

In 1926 a lock hospital was built on Fantome Island; Aboriginal people were sent there mainly for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

[3] In 1907, a leprosarium to house all Queensland patients with leprosy was established on Peel Island in Moreton Bay near Brisbane.

[citation needed] The head of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, Dr Raphael Cilento endeavoured to describe the problem in one of his reports.

[citation needed] There were a few others from as far north as the Gulf region and some from Mossman, and a large number had been born in fringe-camps and had grown up close to white settlement knowing no other life.

[5] In 1932, Cilento described his vision for Fantome:[6] The whole (local)population should be worked through Fantome & then regraded into new cases, incurable aged, incurable young & part cured & thence drafted when clean back into Palm from which they can be sent out into the mainland to be (1) assimilated if white enough; (2) employed under supervision & protection; or (3) kept on Palm as minor officials or peasant proprietors working personal strips around a collective farm.In June 1975, the two existing reserves became a single reserve for official purposes, under the control of the Aboriginal and Island Affairs Department.

[9] It is as of 2020[update] uninhabited, but people from (Great) Palm Island make regular visits to Fantome to fish and perhaps camp occasionally.

[10] A feature-length documentary film, Fantome Island, was released in 2011, made by Sean Gilligan and co-produced by Adrian Strong.

[13] The 120 marked graves are as of 2020 endangered by tidal erosion, with the risk heightened by a combination of factors: their location, the soil structure, vegetation encroachment, and climate change.