It encompasses the Loyalty Islands (French: Îles Loyauté) archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre.

The first Western contact on record is attributed to British Captain William Raven of the whaler Britannia, who was on his way in 1793 from Norfolk Island to Batavia (now called Jakarta).

It is very likely, however, that the discovery and name originated with officials on the London ship Loyalty, which was on a Pacific Ocean trading voyage from 1789 to 1790.

This led to the missionaries travelling to the Torres Strait Islands on the vessel Surprise, in an event still celebrated as "The Coming of the Light", on 1 July 1871.

The people of the Loyalty Islands are of mixed Melanesian and Polynesian ancestry, with a small European minority.