 Cilento believed that mainland Aboriginal people living near towns would be better off on Palm Island (and by extension Fantome Island), where their health could be improved before being returned to the mainland for assimilation into the general community.Cilento also sought to have any "coloured" people living under "native" conditions under the control of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals, as he viewed such groups as a health threat.By December 1933 there were 227 patients on Fantome Island, and a village had been established for elderly married chronic STI patients at the northern end of the island, on a flat area adjacent to the beach, in huts with grass walls and iron roofs.