It is almost entirely given over to western rock lobster fishers' camps, and as a result is far more disturbed than most other islands in the archipelago.

The geographic location of Pigeon Island suggests that it might have been visited by survivors of the 1629 Batavia shipwreck, but there is no surviving evidence of this, either documentary or archaeological.

This platform, which arises abruptly from a flat shelf, is about 40 metres thick, and is of Quaternary origin.

Reef that formed during the Eemian interglacial (about 125,000 years ago), when sea levels were higher than at present, are now emergent in places, and constitute the basement of the group's "central platform" islands, of which Pigeon Island is one.

These are:[5] The island's fauna includes the rare spiny-tailed skink, the Abrolhos painted button-quail and the brush bronzewing.