Horseshoe Bay, with its sandy beach, is popular with boating visitors, and a common overnight anchorage for sailors[citation needed] and sea kayakers.

Horseshoe Bay, running in an unbroken arc along the southern side of the island, provides clean, sheltered waters for swimming.

[citation needed] The lazaret (lazaretto, leper colony or leprosaria) in Queensland was established to isolate those infected with leprosy.

[20] Before Peel Island was used as a lazaret in 1907, it was used for a number of other purposes by colonial and Queensland governments, as well as being occupied by Aboriginal people.

[19] Before British colonial settlement in Australia, Indigenous people lived on Peel Island, with the land used as a feasting and ceremonial site.

[19] Particularly under earlier operations of the lazaret, the isolation of Peel Island more resembled incarceration than that of a medical institution for ill patients.

[25] There have been several accounts of patients being trawled behind a charter ship, isolated on a dinghy en route to the island.

[26] Because the lazaret was designed around the principle of isolation, each patient was housed in a separate hut, then grouped into three compounds according to gender, race and severity of illness.

[18] Each compound was surrounded by 8-foot (2.4 m)-tall wired fences which would be locked at night so as to prevent perceived "illicit behaviour" between the patients.

Other lazaret buildings on the island included a kitchen, dining room, bathhouses, nurses’ cottages, attendants’ quarters and caretakers’ residences.

By the 1950s, the island's occupants had built a reputation among the wider mainland community for their alcohol consumption and intoxicated behaviour.

Although the Queensland Government was unwavering in its policy of isolating Hansen disease sufferers on Peel Island, issues often arose due to lack of adequate funding.

Problems such as poor food supplies, inadequate medical treatment and lack of maintenance only increased the sense of deprivation among patients, as well as staff.

[27] The Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan was built in the north-eastern corner of the lazaret in 1908, originally for primary use by Melanesian patients; it subsequently closed.

These living conditions were extremely harsh, leaving many non-white patients sick, and it is argued that this had a direct effect on their higher death rate on the island.

[20][24] Authorities recognised the segregation between the basic standard of housing and treatment provided to white versus non-white patients as early as 1912.

A section of the petition stated: "There are patients who would astound you by their fine healthy appearance, still they are held in segregation by the cruel and unjust law in existence.

Due to the social stigma associated with Hansen's disease, and the perception that it was highly contagious, it was difficult to find willing nurses, doctors and maintenance staff to work on the island.

Before this time, patients would receive a weekly visit by a qualified doctor who would provide basic medical care.

[27] One of the first experimental treatments for Hansen's disease was the short-lived drug nastin, which involved the injection of the culture of the Bacillus of leprosy.

[32] During this time, many medical professionals believed that a good diet and a stress-free lifestyle was more likely to send the disease into remission.

[33] In January 1947, Peel Island patients were treated with the first of several sulfone derivative drugs, which were developed in the United States.

[20] Despite an increase in public understanding of this inaccuracy, this stigma had an incredibly long-lasting impact on the perception of patients on Peel Island.

"[34] From the relocation of patients in 1959 to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service taking responsibility in 1992, Peel Island was left relatively untouched, as some of the original stigma remained.

[34] Due to the breakthrough in the treatment of Hansen's disease in the 1940s, the need for isolating patients declined and, therefore, so did the purpose of the lazaret on Peel Island.

In 1959, the lazaret officially closed, and the remaining ten patients were sent to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane to finish their treatment.

Today, several drugs are available that counteract symptoms of Hansen's disease such as nerve damage, deformity, disability and further transmission.