Located 25 nautical miles from Kuala Terengganu the Pulau Redang archipelago consist of nine islands - Pulau Lima, Pulau Paku Besar, Pulau Paku Kecil, Pulau Kerengga Besar, Pulau Kerengga Kecil, Pulau Ekor Tebu, Pulau Ling, Pulau Pinang and Pulau Redang. In these group of islands only Pulau Redang and Pulau Pinang are populated. Local islanders settled on Pulau Redang, while Pulau Pinang is now the center for the marine park authority.
The people that lives on Pulau Redang are decendents of Bugis settlers who came from Celebes, Indonesia long time ago. It is said that seven of the Bugis siblings batins (Batin means holy men) from Celebes travelled here to look for new places to settle down.One of them called Batin Talib decided to make Pulau Redang his new home. Till today, only two of Batin Talib's colleagues can be traced. Batin Mina is said to settled down in Pulau Perhentian, in the north. Batin Mina's sister, Batin Cik Siti settled up river on the mainland (Ulu Terengganu).Where the other four Batins went were not known.
Batin Talib and the first settlers established their first village at Telok Kalong, an area facing a lagoon on the east side of the island. He and his villagers then moved to a smaller island down south where they found better shelter from the prevailing wind. This small island is covered with betel nut palms (pinang). They named this island Pulau Pinang.
In the seventies there are approximately 100 families living on Pulau Pinang. As the population grow, the villagers decided to move to the river mouth at Kuala Sungai Redang. Till today there are only two inhabited islands in the Redang Archipelago. Pulau Pinang which houses the marine park centre and Pulau Redang which is the homeland to approximately 250 families. The local people on this island primarily earned their living by traditional fishing. Now most of these fishermens are entering the tourism industry which is growing rapidly on the island. This year all settlers are moved to a new village approximately 2 kilometers inland.
