Location Details for Hervey Bay |
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“Hervey Bay rates as one of Australia's fastest growing regions”
Hervey Bay, the World Heritage Listed gateway to Fraser Island, is a short 1½ hour flight from Sydney, and is situated within one hour of Noosa.
The city of Hervey Bay is located a comfortable three and a half hour drive or 45 minute flight north of Brisbane, Queensland's capital city.
With the extension of the Hervey Bay Airport completed, Jetstar and Virgin Blue now fly directly to Hervey Bay from Sydney, with direct flights from Singapore a possibility from July 2009.
Hervey Bay has a great sub-tropical climate, with summer (January) maximum average temperature of 29 degrees Celsius and a winter (July) maximum average of 22 degrees Celsius. Hervey Bay's abundance of natural assets includes the Great Sandy Strait, World Heritage listed Fraser Island, the Bay and the wetlands. It boasts a quality of life that balances work and pleasure, and is a clean, safe city that has a goal of being Queensland's most accessible city.
Hervey Bay is renowned as a "must do" destination for backpackers and is the main access point to Fraser Island and the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Recognised as the Whale Watch Capital of the World, Hervey Bay is home to majestic humpback whales from July to early November. In total, approximately 1.4 million overnight visitors come to this region each year.
Lifestyle. It's the reason most people give for moving to Hervey Bay and the reason they give for staying. And it's remarkable how so many different people give that same answer.
Young couples, growing families, older couples establishing small businesses, retirees - all are captivated by Hervey Bay's enchanting mix of natural attractions, idyllic climate, relaxed pace, modern facilities, first class educational opportunities, exciting tourism ventures and friendly people. |
| All of this is within easy reach of Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Fraser Island and Central Queensland. |
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Hervey Bay has truly come of age, maintaining its youthful, natural good looks but offering the attractions of a mature, established city. Continued strong growth has seen Hervey Bay's population skyrocket from only 30,000 in 1991 to approximately 50,000 in 2005.
Trends show this growth rate - one of Australia's highest - will continue. Hervey Bay City Council has focused on planning for growth, with intensive town planning, exciting urban designs and upgraded infrastructure. |
Economic growth is matching population growth, particularly in tourism, service industries, retailing and light industries. A spate of multi-million dollar commercial, residential and resort developments are either underway or in the pipeline.
From the Marina, visitors can gain daily access to the World Heritage Listed Fraser Island as well as Whale watching, Deep Sea Fishing and even a visit to the bottom end of the Great Barrier Reef. |
Climate
Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia - situated in a part of the world where the climate is beautiful one day. . . perfect the next !
Situated some 500 kilometres south of the Tropic of Capricorn, Hervey Bay has a hot and humid climate, which influences the lifestyles of residents.
While the summer maximum average temperature is only 30 degrees C, the summer months have some extremely hot days. People with fair skins need to be wary in midday sunshine which can burn in a few minutes. Hats, cool clothing that protects from the sun, sunscreen and common sense are essentials to enjoying Hervey Bay summers.
Average temperatures of around 15 degrees C are usual in winter, which is mild, usually dry, and very pleasant. Most winter days are sunny and there is rarely any frost.
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Early History
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Captain James Cook first discovered the Hervey Bay area in 1770. Rounding Sandy Cape, and initially believing Fraser Island was joined to the mainland, Cook proclaimed the area “Herveys Bay” after Augustus Hervey, Lord of the Admiralty (his boss).
Further exploration of the area was not to continue until 1802 when Matthew Flinders landed at Sandy Cape, and in the following months proceeded to map much of the Bay. |
Aboriginal people occupied the area before European settlement in 1850, and many streets and landmarks in Hervey Bay have Aboriginal names. H. E. Aldridge acquired large tracts of land for cattle grazing between Booral and Burrum Heads in the 1850s. The first settler at Hervey Bay, in 1863, was Martin Boyle, who probably introduced sugar farming to the area where two sugar mills were established. The region was rich in mineral resources including coal, limestone, bismuth, magnetite and mineral sands. Foreshore residential land was subdivided for holiday homes from the mid-1860s.
In 1896 a railway line was constructed from Maryborough to Pialba, boosting tourism. This line was extended to Urangan in 1913 and the Urangan pier was built in 1917 to facilitate the export of sugar and later coal. By the 1920s the Hervey Bay area was rapidly expanding due to continuing growth in primary industries (sugar cane, citrus, pineapples, beef cattle, fishing) and investment in transport infrastructure.
Regular air services from Brisbane commenced in 1930. The 1930s saw the completion of a fully bituminised road connecting Maryborough and Urangan providing further impetus to local growth. As both population and development continued to increase into the 1950s and 1960s, the coastal townships of Pialba, Scarness, Torquay and Urangan slowly began to merge into a single urban area.
But the first inhabitants of Australia were the Aboriginal people whose history, though unrecorded, is now believed to date back to before the Ice Age. Evidence from Tasmania indicates some Aborigines survived the Ice Age by living in caves. Their history began in a time they call the Dreaming, when the Ancestor Spirits emerged from the earth and gave form to the landscape. Anthropologists believe that Aboriginal peoples reached eastern Australia at least 40,000 years ago. Tribes lived in the area now known as Hervey Bay until the English arrived and caused violent disruption to their lives.
The navigator Matthew Flinders passed through the area twice; in 1799 Flinders entered the bay and went ashore at the present site of Dayman Park, thus becoming the first European to step ashore at Hervey Bay. He returned to the area in 1802 on his historic circumnavigation of the Australia, but did not on either voyage pass through the Great Sandy Strait to prove Fraser Island to be, in fact, an island. Lt Joseph Dayman R.N. in the schooner Asp made the first passage of the Fraser Island Straits in 1847. Dayman found the straits by clinging to the shores of the bay as he sailed down the coast after a surveying expedition in the Port Curtis area.
Ambitions of the European squatters and settlers to acquire the land around Maryborough and Hervey Bay, without thought or reference to the Aboriginal inhabitants, resulted in predictable conflict. The actions of a few Aboriginals were more than outweighed by the horrors inflicted on local tribes by white settlers. Poisoning of waterholes and serving up meals of flour and bran laced with strychnine and arsenic were among the ways the whites dealt with the black "problem".
Wholesale slaughter of hundreds of innocent Aboriginals took place in retribution for the actions of a few. Settlers enlisted renegade blacks from further south to act as native police, assisting their mass killings of fellow Aboriginals and providing a convenient excuse when blamed for the bloody raids. Mainland Aboriginals were exiled to Fraser Island, but here too they were persecuted, with many being driven into the sea to their deaths on Christmas Eve of 1851 by native police under the local white commandant.
The first Europeans to become major land holders in Hervey Bay were William McPhail and Michael Sheehan from Brisbane, who leased 16,000 acres of land at Hervey Bay in 1855. They lived in Gayndah, but left Mr R. W Strathdee to occupy the land named the Dalgaroom run, running from Tyroom (River Heads) to Tinbang Creek (Beelbi Creek).
The first permanent white settler at Hervey Bay was Boyle Martin who, with his wife Sarah and child, arrived in 1863. He worked cutting timber, and may have been the first person to grow sugar cane in the area. Over time, Boyle and his brother-in-law attracted other workers and business to the area.
In the early days of European settlement in Australia Hervey Bay was considered to be part of the Port of Maryborough, which served as an immigration port for free settlers and was second only to Sydney on the eastern seaboard. Maryborough is one of Queensland's oldest cities, being first settled by Europeans in 1847 as a wool port.
Sailing ships carrying immigrants rarely attempted to navigate the Mary River to the place where Maryborough stands today. Instead, they anchored in Hervey Bay and passengers were ferried from there in smaller boats. The Silver Eagle pictured here arrived in May 1880 with 264 immigrants after battling strong gales along the way.
The voyage took just over 3 months.
In 1876, a Mr Sutherland constructed a building which housed a butcher and postal receiving office which became the start of the Pialba township. In the 1870s many Scandinavian settlers moved into the area. Denman's Camp road became full of mainly Danish people, so it was named Aalborg after a city in Denmark. At this time the area was basically used for dairy farming.
In the 1880s commercial sugar growing was introduced to the area and Kanakas were brought from the South Pacific islands to work on the sugar plantations. Today, a monument serves as a reminder that thousands of these virtual slaves were brought to Australia as conscripted labour from 1863–1906.
In 1896 the Bay was connected to Maryborough by railway and in 1917 the 1.4 kilometre long Urangan Pier was completed. Urangan then became an important port for the export of sugar.
During the 1920s Hervey Bay's local industries included sugar cane, citrus and pineapple plantations, cattle and fishing. The growing popularity of the bay as a holiday destination was recognised even then.
The attractions of the area led Maryborough businessmen to take up large waterfront blocks of land for weekend retreats. Villages inhabited by Europeans sprang up along the foreshore of Hervey Bay, and in September 1977 the combined villages of Point Vernon, Pialba, Torquay, Urangan, and Gatakers Bay were declared the Town of Hervey Bay. In 1984 the town became the City of Hervey Bay.
More recently, a new university in the city started taking its first students in 1997. A new public hospital serves the city, and the Hervey Bay airport is a growing hive of activity. One kilometre of the old Urangan pier has been restored, making it one of the country's great fishing platforms.
Today, tourism and commerce are the backbone of Hervey Bay's economy.
Modern City
The main urban area of Hervey Bay now stretches from Gatakers Bay in the north to River Heads in the south including the suburbs of Point Vernon, Pialba, Scarness, Torquay and Urangan.
One of the fastest growing cities in Australia, Hervey Bay is structured around a network of parks, walkways and cycle ways, and well on its way to becoming one of Australia's most accessible cities. With 50,000 residents in 2005, population predictions from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics indicate Hervey Bay will have 90,000 residents by the year 2021.
Current primary Industries include sugarcane, non-orchard fruit and citrus, livestock (mostly beef cattle) and fishing. Secondary Industries include manufacturing (wood products, machinery and equipment, food and beverages and fabricated meal products), retailing and wholesaling, construction and transport and storage.Tertiary Industries include tourism, administration and finance, community services and education.
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Some idea of the beauty of Hervey Bay and Fraser Island can be gained from these pictures taken from aircraft. |
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1. This view from Urangan looking towards Point Vernon shows the Esplanade and a strip of treed parkland that separates the beach from the built up areas of Hervey Bay City.The waters of the bay can vary in colour from blue to turquoise depending on lighting conditions.
2. An aerial view gives an idea of the picturesque nature the harbour. Its sheltered waters are even smoother than those of the normally calm Bay.
3. This is the strip of beach between Torquay and Scarness, looking inland towards Maryborough. This strip of beach is arguably the Bay's best for swimming and watersports.
4. The beachside sports playing fields of Pialba can be seen in this picture, looking towards Urangan.
5. This is a close-up of a Pialba beachfront oval, with the roofs of the shopping centre in the background. This is the venue for the annual Yagubi Festival, part of the Whale Festival, various other events, and football.
6. Point Vernon is a pleasant residential area jutting out into the bay. The foreshore here is quite rocky, unlike that of most of the city.
7. This is Eli Creek, Hervey Bay, winding its way into Gatakers Bay just east of Point Vernon. Not to be confused with a creek by the same name on Fraser Island.
8. Seen here are the lakes in the vicinity of Urangan's Kondari Resort.
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| Lifestyle Choice |
Torquay Hotel
Hervey Bay’s relaxed pace, idyllic climate, safe all-year swimming and unspoilt natural environment entice people of all ages and from all walks of life to consider this city as their destination of choice.
The winning combination of investment opportunities and affordable living costs that characterises Hervey Bay has proved to be a drawcard for people from all over the world. Modern technology and transport options enable business people to enjoy the Hervey Bay lifestyle while they conduct their business activities globally.
Hervey Bay’s climate is perfect for outdoor activities. Water sports, fishing, golf, lawn bowls, horse riding, tennis, football and cricket - whatever your favourite sport or recreational pursuit you won’t be disappointed. A network of pedestrian and cycle paths link the major shopping, education and foreshore areas encouraging residents and visitors to use the streets and parks for social, recreation and transport purposes.
World-heritage listed Fraser Island is right on our doorstep. The largest sand island in the world, Fraser Island attracts over 300,000 visitors annually. The recently developed Fraser Island Great Walk encompasses 90 kilometres of amazing landscapes including ocean and estuarine beaches, cliffs and gorges, dense rainforest, tall open forest and pristine lakes. Fraser Island offers an eco-tourism experience unlike any other.
Lady Elliot Island, on the southern tip of the world-famous Great Barrier Reef, is just a 40 minute flight away. You can visit for a day or stay at the Island’s Resort and enjoy some of the best snorkelling, diving and birdlife in Australia.
From the end of July until early November each year, the magnificent humpback whales visit Hervey Bay for some rest and recreation as they complete their migration back to Antarctica.
These gentle giants are curious to view the thousands of whale-watchers who come to see their playful tail-slapping, spy-hopping and breaching. Nowhere else in the world offers such an “up-close-and-personal” encounter with the humpbacks.
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| Transport in Hervey Bay |
In 2005 Hervey Bay City Council embarked on a $13 million redevelopment of the airport to facilitate direct flights to Sydney and connecting linkages to other Australian ports, in addition to the current services to Brisbane.
With regular jet services from Sydney commencing at the end of July 2005, there has been strong growth in the tourism and business sectors. |
 Hervey Bay Airport |
Road transport is a viable option with Hervey Bay only 3.5 hours easy drive from Brisbane, Queensland’s capital city. The major freight and coach companies provide north- and south-bound services daily.
Daily Flights by Virgin & Jetstar |
The proximity of the Ports of Brisbane and Bundaberg (approximately 1.25 hours by road) is also attractive to local exporters.
Queensland Rail’s Tilt Train offers fast, comfortable rail travel south to Brisbane and north to Cairns. The Train-link coach provides a connecting service from Hervey Bay to the Maryborough West Rail Station.
Helicopter and fixed wing charter and joy flights are available from Hervey Bay Airport, in addition to daily flights to Lady Elliot Island on the Southern Great Barrier Reef.
Visiting business people and holidaymakers can choose from conventional hire vehicles or Four-Wheel Drives suitable to explore the wonders of Fraser Island. For the active visitor, most accommodation places hire bicycles which are ideal for sightseeing in Hervey Bay.
Bus Services Comprehensive bus services operate within Hervey Bay and are operated by Wide Bay Transit.
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| Education |
Hervey Bay primary schools, state schools, special schools, and high schools are listed on the right.
The links to pages for individual schools are to the Education Queensland website, and will open in a new browser window.
Simply close that window to return to About Hervey Bay (this page).
Urangan State High School has modern buildings situated in an attractive garden setting.
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Extensive playing grounds are right alongside.
Hervey Bay State High School as seen from Old Maryborough Road in Pialba.
Hervey Bay also has a university: the University of Southern Queensland campus is located on Old Maryborough Road, not far from Hervey Bay State High School.
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| Health Services to meet a growing community |
The Fraser Coast District Health Service incorporates two acute care hospitals located at Hervey Bay (100 commissioned beds) and Maryborough (94 commissioned beds).
Hospital inpatient services include anaesthetics, general surgery, orthopaedic surgery, dental, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, paediatrics and intensive care. |
Hervey Bay Hospital |
Services have been arranged to provide surgery, ICU and birthing services at Hervey Bay, with elective services being concentrated at Maryborough. Both hospitals maintain 24 hour Accident and Emergency Departments.
There is a Mental Health Inpatient Unit at Maryborough and a Renal Unit at Hervey Bay. Both cities have comprehensive medical support services, community health, dental and community mental health services.
For up-to-date information on services provided by the Fraser Coast District Health Service, please check their website for details.
Planning has commenced for the expansion of St Stephen’s Private Hospital Facility with the development of a private hospital in Hervey Bay, with stage one completed in December 2005.
This new hospital will combine a Day Surgery Facility and 60 bed inpatient section along with associated support infrastructure including radiology, pathology and a specialist medical centre.
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| Shopping |
| Hervey Bay has some of the best shopping facilities in the region, attracting occasional shoppers from Maryborough and outlying towns. |
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1. If Auckland, New Zealand, is the city of sails, Hervey Bay could reasonably be called the city of signs. With major shopping developments on both sides of Boat Harbour Drive, this is the view visitors see when entering the city on the road from Maryborough.
2. This is a typical view of some of the shops lining the sides of Boat Harbour Drive.
3. Visitors travelling by coach arrive at the coach terminal attached to the Bay Central shopping centre on Boat Harbour Drive. Courtesy vehicles from backpacker lodges are usually here to meet the coaches. Bay Central includes a Franklins Supermarket, Target, and numerous smaller specialty shops
4. An inside view of Bay Central.
5. Pialba Place consists of the Coles Supermarket plus 32 smaller specialty shops. Woolworths is just one block away.
6. This is Torquay Road, Pialba. Hosting the bulk of Hervey Bay's major shops plus banks, a post office, and professional offices, Pialba can justifiably claim to be the business centre of the city.
7. Holidaymaker headquarters would have to be The Esplanade, between Scarness and Urangan. The Esplanade is lined with holiday accommodation and shops for much of its length, and contains a mixture of new and older buildings. At Scarness, the Pacific Palais shown here was built in 1954.
8. On the corner of Boat Harbour Drive and Elizabeth Street at Urangan there is another Woolworths in the Urangan Central shopping centre, along with a post office and specialty stores.
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| Tourist Attractions |
| Hervey Bay abounds with natural and man-made tourist attractions, making it a favourite Australian back packer and holiday destination. |
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1. Sky Diving from 10,000 feet over Hervey Bay is something you can try in tandem, with one of Australia's most experienced instructors.
2. Famous Australian shark catcher, Vic Hislop has established a monster shark show on The Esplanade, Hervey Bay. Some of Vic's catches are on display, together with educational entertainment highlighting the danger of sharks to man and whale.
3. Korrawinga is the name of the community farm at Scrub Hill, where you can take a guided tour seeing members of the local Aboriginal community working together towards self sufficiency. Learn a bit about bush tucker and natural remedies, or examine the traditional Aboriginal artifacts available for sale.
4. At Torquay beach you will find that you can hire everything from a catamaran, canoe, or sailboard to fishing boats complete with tackle to enable you to enjoy the waters of Hervey Bay. You can also go water skiing here, or take a ride on tubes or the big banana, or a jet ski. And of course the beach itself is a beautiful place for a swim, a family picnic, or a lazy day outdoors.
5. Just outside Hervey Bay city is the go-kart track, where you can test your driving skill in a hired kart. A local go-kart club conducts regular race meetings at the track, sometimes attracting competitors from afar. The track itself has uphill and downhill sections, making for particularly interesting racing.
6. Fishing is something that attracts many to the numerous inlets and estuaries of Hervey Bay. It is easy to hire a tinny if you don't have one of your own, and the calm waters of the bay instill a confidence that can be lacking at more exposed venues. Several tackle shops along the Esplanade of Hervey Bay city can advise where the fish are biting.
7. Former resident of Hervey Bay, Janet Revill, offers an amazing variety of exotic artwork for sale to visitors at the Moon River Gallery on the waterfront, at the bottom end of Wharf Street in nearby Maryborough. At 71 Wharf Street in the heritage city, the gallery is open 11am - 5pm Wednesdays.
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| More Tourist Attractions |
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1. Sunsets produce some beautiful scenes in many parts of the world, but when reflected in calm waters as they often are in Hervey Bay, the resulting scenes are truly spectacular. The strip of beachside parkland stretching the length of Hervey Bay city is equipped with numerous seats facing the water so that these quieter moments may be enjoyed in comfort.
2. An early morning walk along the beaches gets the circulation going and provides a refreshing change for holidaymakers who normally live in urban areas.
3. The beaches of Hervey Bay city are connected by this foreshore bike and walking track, paralleled for much of its length by the Esplanade which carries vehicular traffic.
Fitness enthusiasts find the track is a marvellous way of getting around, on roller blades, bicycles, skateboards, or on foot.
4. Feeding the waterbirds in the Urangan Botanical Gardens is a family activity particularly enjoyed by young children. Quiet hectares of trees surrounding the gardens provide an ideal habitat for numerous other birds. Bird feeding is held weekdays at 9.30 am and 3.30 pm.
5. Fraser Island is a major eco-tourism destination in its own right, and Hervey Bay city is the starting point for numerous one, two, and three day tours of the island's attractions.
Access to the island is possible by vehicular barges, aircraft, and a variety of boats. Four wheel drive vehicles are the most practical means of independent transport on the island, and these can be hired either on the mainland or on the island itself.
6. A joyflight with Elite Airways departing from Hervey Bay airport can provide a wonderful birds-eye view of the Fraser Coast and Hervey Bay city. Seen here are the lakes in the vicinity of Urangan's Kondari Resort.
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Phone (07) 3387 2200
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