Experience the best of Hervey Bay

Hervey Bay is a string of beach suburbs, Pialba, Scarness, Torquay and Urangan, facing a wide, sheltered bay that Fraser Island shields from the open Pacific. A paved esplanade runs for kilometres along the shore, with parks, cafés and a cycle path, and at Urangan the long timber pier reaches far out over the shallows, an old cargo wharf now used by anglers and walkers.

Humpback whales rest in the bay with their calves on the southward leg of their migration to Antarctic waters, usually from about July to early November. The barges and ferries for Fraser Island leave from River Heads, to the south, and Maryborough, a heritage town and the birthplace of P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins, lies a short drive inland.

Local tables lean on seafood, prawns, fish and scallops, with sugar cane, tropical fruit and macadamia nuts grown on the farmland behind the coast. The water stays calm enough for gentle paddling and sailing. Winters are mild and dry with clear days, which is also when the whales are in the bay.