Peel Island lies in Moreton Bay off Cleveland Point. Its history spans ceremonial use, colonial quarantine and a lazaret for people with Hansen’s disease, which operated from 1907 to 1959.
Before the lazaret
The island was a feasting and ceremonial site for the Indigenous people of the area. It was later used as a quarantine station in the late 1800s and as a home for inebriates in the early 1900s.
Opening and early patients
Find and Connect describes the Peel Island Lazaret as opening in 1907 as Australia’s first purpose-built, multi-racial lazaret. Non-European patients from Friday Island Lazaret and European patients from Stradbroke Island Lazaret were moved to the island when it was established. Children were among those sent in 1907. CyArk states that the lazaret opened to house 71 patients. Under the Leprosy Act of 1892, CyArk says, people with the disease could be forcibly removed and held until their symptoms abated.
CyArk records that white patients were housed in simply furnished, one-roomed timber and tin-roofed huts in wire-fenced compounds. CyArk says all patients could mix freely throughout the day, but white and non-white patients did not share recreation or dining facilities. At night, patients were locked in separate gender- and race-specific compounds. CyArk says a church was constructed in 1908, and that a six-bed hospital was built in 1937, some thirty years after the site opened.
Conditions and treatment
Find and Connect says the island was run by the state government, and that a lack of funding was a constant problem for food supplies, medical treatment and weatherproof housing. In 1940 the decision was made to move non-European patients to Fantome Island, off Townsville. CyArk gives the transfer as January 1940, under police escort.
Find and Connect says electricity was not available until 1948. Sources differ on when the first resident doctor arrived: Find and Connect gives 1947 and CyArk gives 1949. From 1947 onwards, patients were treated with sulphone derivatives, according to Find and Connect.
CyArk names Dr Gabriel as the final Medical Officer, who stayed until the closure in 1959. CyArk states that over 400 people were detained at the lazaret for an illness that did not pose a real threat to the broader community. Of these, 250 died and were buried on the island, according to CyArk.
Closure and later use
The lazaret closed in 1959, and the remaining patients were transferred to South Brisbane Hospital. From 1968 to 1993 the Church of England Grammar School leased some of the buildings for an outdoor educational camp.
In 1992 the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service took over management of the island. Find and Connect says the island was included in the Queensland Heritage Register that year, while CyArk gives the inscription date as 1993.
On 18 December 2007 the island was renamed Teerk Roo Ra and declared a national park and conservation park. As at CyArk’s in-depth page, read on 9 November 2026 (undated), the island is owned by the Quandamooka people and jointly managed by QPWS and the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation.
Recording the site and the people
The undated CyArk page says researchers from the CSIRO and the University of Queensland School of Architecture scanned the site from 2012, with QPWS assistance and other collaborators including QUT staff and students. Find and Connect records that Noel Agnew, who was transferred to the island at 11, identified 76 species of birds while there.
What the sources do not settle
Find and Connect and CyArk give different years for the register listing, 1992 and 1993. The first resident doctor’s arrival is also unresolved, with 1947 and 1949 given by different sources.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Peel Island?
Peel Island lies in Moreton Bay off Cleveland Point.
When did the Peel Island lazaret close?
The lazaret closed in 1959, and the remaining patients went to South Brisbane Hospital.
When was the island renamed Teerk Roo Ra?
Find and Connect says the island was renamed Teerk Roo Ra on 18 December 2007.
