Peel Island was used as a quarantine station for the colony of Brisbane. Sailing ships would anchor to the north of the island, and the passengers would disembark on Peel Island for a quarantine period before moving on to Dunwich on nearby North Stradbroke Island. The arriving sailing ships would be fumigated and scrubbed down with carbolic to sanitise them before they ventured on to Brisbane with the new arrivals. Remains of the old quarantine station are at the southwest corner of the island, where the old well can be found. Peel Island was used as an asylum for vagrants from Brisbane around the start of the 20th century, but the conditions were too harsh and the inmates were moved to Dunwich, on nearby Stradbroke Island. Peel Island was also used as a sisal farm. The inmates would harvest the sisal and manufacture rope which was sold to help fund the asylum. Remnants of the sisal plantations are still visible when walking around the western side of the island. Between 1907 and 1959 the island was a leper colony. In 2007, the island was declared as Teerk Roo Ra National Park and Conservation Park. There are limited facilities in Peel Island; however, there is a toilet block. Tracks which were used when the island was a leper colony can now be used to walk across the island. The leper colony's housing is currently being restored, possibly for school camps, but there is asbestos in some of the housing used for Indigenous Australians housed there. After the island was decommissioned as a leper colony, it was discovered that the strain of leprosy which infected its inhabitants was non-contagious. Peel Island Lazaret Peel Island operated as a lazaret from 1907 to 1959. The Peel Island lazaret, or leprosarium, is important to Queensland history because of its social and political significance in terms of state health policy, serving as a reminder of the conditions in which people lived and worked on the island. Background The lazaret (lazaretto, leper colony or leprosaria) in Queensland was established to isolate those infected with leprosy. The influx of migrants to Queensland after free settlement brought leprosy, or Hansen's disease, to Australia. Hansen's disease has had a history of forced patient isolation from society, and Queensland's Leprosy Act of 1892 was an example of legislation intended to isolate leprosy patients from the mainland. Before Peel Island was used