Fantome was gazetted as an Aboriginal reserve in 1925. The Fantome Island Lock Hospital for the treatment of Aboriginal people suffering from venereal diseases was established on Fantome Island in 1928. The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary took over the running of the hospital in 1939. This institution closed in 1945. In 1940 a leprosarium was established on the island; upon its closure in 1973, it was purged by fire. The island is the site of 200 graves. In 1926 a lock hospital was built on Fantome Island; Aboriginal people were sent there mainly for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. In 1936 Fantome Island became a medical clearing station where people sent to Palm Island were examined and treated if necessary. A leprosarium was established on Fantome in 1939. After World War II the hospital was closed, and by 1965 only the leprosarium remained on Fantome Island; it was administered by a Roman Catholic nursing order until 1973, when the inhabitants were moved to Palm Island. The administrators had complete and unaccountable control over the lives of residents. Punishments included the shaving of the girls' heads. In 1907, a leprosarium to house all Queensland patients suffering from leprosy was established on Peel Island in Moreton Bay near Brisbane. In 1940, the Indigenous patients were transferred from Peel Island to Fantome Island, under police escort and in conditions of great secrecy. The numbers of people admitted to Peel Island fluctuated during the mid-1920s and rose to 47 new cases in 1928. Although no new cases were reported in 1929 the reason might have been the secrecy with which this whole issue was managed by the Queensland Health authorities and the inability of the health regime to locate and track down the source of infection. This was not a simple problem and it persisted well into the next decade. The head of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, Dr Raphael Cilento endeavoured to describe the problem in one of his reports. He wrote that when Kuranda reserve started in 1914, the majority of the Aboriginal people brought there belonged to the Djabugay language group, a closely knit group. There were a few others from as far north as the Gulf region and some from Mossman, and a large number had been born in fringe-camps and had grown up close to white settlement knowing no other life. The first case of leprosy reported among Aboriginal people in the region "was an old woman, Nellie, who died in 1916". She was avoided by other locals. She had no known descendants at the settlement. In 1932, Cilento described his vision for Fantome: In June 1975, the two existing reserves became a single reserve for official purposes, under the control of the Aboriginal and Island Affairs Department. In 1986 this was rescinded, and Fantome Island was transferred to the Palm Island Community Council by a Deed of Grant in Trust.
Heritage listing
The sites of both institutions were listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 8 June 2012.
Geography
The island, one of the Palm Islands group, is about north-east of Townsville, off the Queensland coast. Its area is about and it is surrounded by a fringing reef.
Governance and people
The island is under the administration of the Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council. Along with nine of the other islands within the Palm Islands group, it falls under the local government area of the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island. It is as of 2020 uninhabited, but people from Palm Island make regular visits to Fantome to fish and perhaps camp occasionally. The Djagubay name for this island is Eumilli Island. The Manbarra language, of the Manbarra people, is a language of the region.
Documentary film
A feature-length documentary film, Fantome Island, was released in 2011, made by Sean Gilligan and co-produced by Adrian Strong. It follows the story of former patient Joe Eggmolesse, a Kanaka man who had spent 10 years there as a child and who returns to the island for a special Remembrance Day as a 73-year-old. The historical background of racist policies practised by the Queensland government and certain individuals is narrated and shown. The film was shown in the 2011 Brisbane Film Festival and went on to win two awards, the 2012 John Oxley Memory Award by the State Library of Queensland, and Best Australian Documentary at the 2012 Human Rights Arts & Film Festival. The film has also been shown on NITV and SBS on Demand.
