Bananas, taro, yams, betel, sugarcane, as well as coconut, areca nut and sago palms grow on the island.

Pottery[3] was made by the women on Mailu Island and traded with goods from the coast, mainly the South Cape and the Aroma people to the NW.

First recorded sighting of Mailu island was by the Spanish expedition of Luís Vaez de Torres, that landed on it on 24 August 1606.

All the nearby land including the coast of New Guinea was called by the Spaniards Magna Margarita to honour the wife of the king of Spain at that time Philip III, Margaret of Austria.

[6] Between 1972 and 1974 New Zealand archaeologist Geoffrey Irwin[7] carried out a survey of Mailu Island and the neighbouring coast where linguistically related groups, speakers of Mailuan languages, live.