The ocean surrounding the islands is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, where extraction and fishing are regulated.

[11] Table 1 shows the micro-islands, known as rocks, and their Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) designations.

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.

[11][18] The remaining rocks, listed above, are owned by the Commonwealth and are in the jurisdiction of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).

[22] 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.

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.

[28] In Manbarra beliefs the Palm Island group were formed in the Dreamtime from the broken up fragments of an ancestral spirit, Rainbow Serpent.

[34][16] 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.

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.

[38][39][40] 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.

[42][43] On Wednesday 4 July 1935, a new timber St George's Anglican Church was opened and dedicated by Bishop John Feetham.

It was a seaplane maintenance facility with a concrete slipway which was predominantly used to serve PBY Catalina flying boats.

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".

[50] In 1999 the Queensland Government apologised and gave A$7,000 compensation each to former Palm Islander employees in recompense for underpaid wages between 1975 and 1986.

[53] 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.

In 2010 it reported that more work was needed on police relations, while noting that some improvement had occurred, recommending 51 specific actions.

[3] The police raids and behaviour following the riot were found in December 2016 to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act 1975,[54] with a record class action settlement of A$30 million awarded to victims in May 2018.

[55] The raids were found by the court to be "racist" and "unnecessary, disproportionate" with police having "acted in these ways because they were dealing with an Aboriginal community".

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

"[58] Subsequently, the Park Authority refused to extend the pearl farming permits and Crimp took action before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to have this decision reversed.

[10][3][13] As of 2007[update], the community consisted of approximately 42 Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander clan or family groups.

[63] 92.2% of respondents reported speaking only English at home (compared with 81.2% for Queensland), the next most common being Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole) at 0.2%.

[66] St Michael's Catholic School was blessed on Sunday 24 July 1938 by the Apostolic Delegate Giovanni (John) Panico.

These activities enable access to information knowledge and culture, developing the capacity of community members to participate in social and economic opportunities.

[80] Some attempts have been made to develop a tourist industry on Great Palm Island, but these have met with limited success.

[81] Although the island has tropical rainforest and is rich in diverse flora and fauna,[82] is close to the Great Barrier Reef and its waters abound with tropical fish, making it an ideal spot for eco-tourism, there have been concerns owing to its troubled history and social problems, and its residents need to be ready to embrace the idea of a possible flood of visitors.

[94] He was president of the council at the time of its sacking by the Bjelke-Petersen government in July 1978,[50] and later deported from the island, along with Bill Rosser (see below).