It tells the story of a young Palm Island man of the 19th century called Kukamunburra [de] who was renamed "Tambo" by a circus agent for the "Barnum, Bailey and Hutchinson's Greatest show on earth".

[11] On 3 February 1930, in an incident known as the 1930 Palm Island Tragedy, the first Superintendent of the Settlement, Robert Henry Curry, who had been a strict disciplinarian, shot and wounded two people, and set fire to several buildings, killing his two children.

[31] Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement was mentioned in the Bringing Them Home Report (1997) as an institution that housed children removed from their families, part of the Stolen Generation.

The air station was built at Wallaby Point, an isolated area of Palm Island, overlooking a large stretch of sheltered water in Challenger Bay, which was ideal for flying boat operations.

[34] On 18 June 1944, 177 men and 4 officers of Company B, 91st Naval Construction Battalion, arrived from Milne Bay to dismantle the station's buildings and facilities, removing and crating over 5,000 tons of materials and equipment and loading it aboard ship before departing on 31 August 1944.

[12] Seven families were banished from the Palm Island in 1957 for taking part in a strike organised to protest against the Dickensian working conditions imposed by the Queensland Government under the reserve system.

[44] In 1996, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found in favour of the applicants, in Bligh and Ors v State of Queensland [1996] HREOCA 28 that "...payment to be made to an Aboriginal worker doing the same work and providing the same level of skills had necessarily to be less".

[43] In July 2019, it was announced that the Queensland Government had agreed to a A$190 settlement million to a group of about 10,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who had launched a class action filed 2016 in the Federal Court of Australia.

[49] The article from The Sunday Times stated that Palm Island had one of the highest crime rates in the world and that "boys ride bareback on horses through the near-derelict civic centre as infants ambush passing cars with slingshots.

[51] However, it was conceded by the Queensland Aboriginal Policy Minister, Judy Spence, that Palm Island "can be violent at times", particularly for women and children, but that the situation was being improved.

[55] After media and public pressure, the Queensland Attorney-General appointed former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Sir Laurence Street to review the decision.

[12] The police raids and behaviour following the riot were found in December 2016 to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act 1975,[61] with a record class action settlement of A$30 million awarded to victims in May 2018.

[3][29] It is the main island of the Greater Palm group, and consists of small bays, sandy beaches and steep forested mountains rising to a peak of 548 metres (1,798 ft).

[70] Great Palm Island's rich volcanic soil supports tropical flora such as mangroves, eucalypt forest, rainforests, hoop pine, mango, banana, pawpaw (papaya) and wild plum trees.

The push for privatisation of title was led by the Australian Government (through Mal Brough, as Indigenous Affairs Minister), Noel Pearson (of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership), and some families on the island.

[29] At the same time it has been at the forefront of political activism which has sought to improve the conditions and treatment of Indigenous Australians, as well as redress injustices visited on them broadly and on Palm Island specifically.

Relics of failed or abandoned ventures were still evident: a piggery, chicken farm, disused stockyards, market garden and a joinery works.

[29] The 2000 Dillon Report found that the cost of living issue was exacerbated by economic loss to alcohol abuse, drug dependence and gambling, and the fact that crops and livestock are not cultivated locally on the island.

Over a five-year period in the 1970s Applied Ecology Pty Ltd (an organisation designed to assist Aboriginal communities to develop sustainable industries, funded by the Government) established an oyster lease on Palm Island.

With an incoming flow of money to the island in the form of compensation under the A$30 million class action payment for the 2004 riots, and some of the stolen wages settlement, there would be a need for all sectors to work on improving financial literacy in the community.

[89] Research by the Centre for Tropical Urban and Regional Planning at James Cook University in 2007 concluded that Palm Island has most of the resources it needs to be largely self-sufficient through housing, agriculture and tourism.

[94] Economist Helen Hughes wrote in 2007 that the state of affairs was largely due to the establishment of the "penal settlement in 1918 for Aborigines unwilling to be docile, underpaid bush and domestic workers", and historical and current "apartheid-like" policies: the Queensland Government was failing the community by "stalling the Commonwealth's efforts to improve policing, education and health and to introduce private property rights".

Key themes were "improved outcomes for young people; self-esteem and community pride; training and employment; health and safety; and economic development".

However the community also had a role to play in improving the future for young people, which should include fostering relationships with both non-profit and commercial organisations, outside of the government sector.

[102] Wilson attributed the extreme crime rates to historical (including repression and colonial practices,[103]) social, economic, housing and educational factors, and an "alcohol culture" that perceived not drinking to be antisocial.

[106] It is funded by the Queensland Government to administer the program, created in response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, with the aim of keeping Indigenous children on Palm out of the criminal justice system.

The only licensed premises in the ten islands is the Coolgaree Bay Sports Bar and Bistro, which requires a valid membership for sales of alcohol, whether for on- or off-premises consumption.

[115][116] Later characterised as hepatoenteritis, the disease was proposed to have been caused by the toxin cylindrospermopsin released from cyanobacterial cells after the addition of excessive doses of copper sulfate to the water supply of Solomon Dam to target a bloom of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii.

[123] Having moved on from a dispute between the State Government and the Palm Island Council over who should run the facility,[124] the situation has become very positive and cooperative, the centre is used for its intended purpose of youth and community engagement through sport and education.

The centre is mostly staffed by community members who teach the younger generation both traditional and life skills such as weaving and cooking in a safe and comfortable environment.