Fantome Island
| Native name: Djabugay Eumilli | |
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| Geography | |
| Location | Coral Sea |
| Archipelago | Great Palm Island group |
| Total islands | 10 |
| Major islands | Great Palm Island |
| Area | 7.47 km2 (2.88 sq mi) |
| Administration | |
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Australia
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| Demographics | |
| Population | 0 |
Fantome Island is one of the islands in the Great Palm Island group. It is neighboured by Great Palm Island and is 65 km (40 mi) north-east of Townsville, Queensland on the east coast of Australia. The Aboriginal name for this island is Eumilli Island. The island is small with an area of 7.8 km2 (3.01 sq mi) and is surrounded by a fringing reef.
A Lock Hospital for the treatment of Indigenous patients suffering from venereal diseases was established on Fantome Island in 1928. 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. The island was also a mission under the influence of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
In 1932 the head of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine, Dr Raphael Cilento, described his vision for Fantome:
The whole (local)population should be worked through Fantome & then regraded into new cases, incurable aged, incurable young & part cured & thence drafted when clean back into Palm from which they can be sent out into the mainland to be (1) assimilated if white enough; (2) employed under supervision & protection; or (3) kept on Palm as minor officials or peasant proprietors working personal strips around a collective farm. (in Yarwood, 1991: 63)
In Queensland in 1920 there were 31 lepers and they were mostly Aborigines, though their numbers also included Torres Strait Islanders, Kanakas, Europeans and Asians. This figure represents a decline in the number of Aborigines contracting the disease of whom there had been 35 in 1910. The number of infected Aborigines rose to 36 in 1925, so it was obvious that leprosy was not about to disappear. The regions from which the new cases came were all in the north. A number of towns in the north such as Cherbourg, Taroom, Bundaberg, Innisfail and Ingham provided one leper each and two came from Cardwell. Leprosy had therefore become a disease of the north: no further new cases were reported from the southern areas of the State after 1925.
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Wikipedia