It is in the Central Coast Council local government area and on the Bass Highway, between Burnie and Ulverstone.

The area's dense bushland and easy access to the sea led to Penguin becoming a significant port town, with large quantities of timber shipped across Bass Strait to Victoria, where the 1850s gold rushes were taking place.

The town was named by the botanist Ronald Campbell Gunn for the little penguin rookeries that are common along the less populated areas of the coast.

[3] Penguin was one of the last districts settled along the North West coast of Tasmania, possibly because of an absence of a river for safe anchorage.

By European arrival in 1803 some 4,000-5,000 semi-nomadic Aboriginal people continued to manage this diverse and changing landscape, both responding to and manipulating the environment.

Each winter the Northern people abandoned the cold of the Western Tiers and the flooded flats of the Meander Valley and traveled to the coast where they would congregate at sites such as Port Sorell at Panatana.

By 1847, when the 47 surviving Aborigines were transferred from Flinders Island to Oyster Cove, there were no Northern people left alive.

The "Penguin Foreshore Remediation Project" will improve on the preexisting wave-break wall in place, and build new ones in areas not currently covered.

The project became a matter of urgency after (what is believed to be due to climate change) increased tides caused erosion on the old wall, and in some cases waves crashing onto the main road.

Construction on a new single campus, which will host all year levels, is expected to start in October 2020, costing $20 million.

The response to the cemetery's ongoing and widespread publicity was such that the Tasmanian Association for Hospice & Palliative Care (TAH&PC) funded the inaugural Penguin Twilight Celebration of the Dead - music among the tombstones.

The celebration culminated in a butterfly release in the commemorative garden dedicated to the tens of unnamed babies in the cemetery.

Children of the World by Bruny Island artist Keith Smith stands in its small commemorative garden.

[28] Installed in July 2020 is an art piece featuring a mosaic on the front and a word-jumble on the back, celebrating how marginalised people contribute to our communities, despite their struggles.