Hervey Bay (Queensland)

Hervey Bay is a bay of the Coral Sea in the Bundaberg Region and Fraser Coast Region of Queensland, Australia.[1] It is known for its whale watching.[2]

This article is about the body of water. For the town, see Hervey Bay, Queensland. For the Queensland electoral district, see Electoral district of Hervey Bay.

Hervey Bay
View from the International Space Station of the town of Hervey Bay (upper left), the Great Sandy Strait (left), Fraser Island (lower) and Hervey Bay (upper and right), 2013
Coordinates25.0036°S 152.8433°E / -25.0036; 152.8433

History
Hervey Bay (the town in the background, the bay in the foreground) with the Urangan Pier, 1967

Hervey Bay was logged by Lieutenant James Cook on 21 May 1770 on his exploration of the eastern Australian coast in the HM Bark Endeavour. He named it Hervey's Bay after his return to England, after Admiral Augustus John Hervey who was Lord of the Admiralty from 1771 to 1775.[1]

In July and August 1799 Matthew Flinders chartered the coast from Moreton Bay to Hervey Bay in the Norfolk.[3][4] Although he established that Fraser Island was not a peninsula (as was then believed) but an island, he failed to find a navigable channel through the Great Sandy Strait which separates the island from the mainland. His explorations of the area is commemorated by a monument called Matthew Flinders Lookout at the top of an escarpment facing the bay in Dayman Park, Urangan (25.2893°S 152.9080°E / -25.2893; 152.9080 (Matthew Flinder's Lookout)).[5]

Lieutenant Joseph Dayman was the first to navigate through the Great Sandy Strait on 10 November 1846 in a small decked boat called the Asp. It had been intended that Dayman rendezvous with the HMS Rattlesnake but that ship had already departed. Dayman decided it was safer to take the Asp through the Great Sandy Strait rather than risk taking the route to the ocean side of the Fraser Island as he was concerned about the Breakpoint Spit at the north of Fraser Island.[5]

Whales
Humpback whale breaching in Hervey Bay, 2013

Hervey Bay is a resting place during the annual migration of approximately 35,000 humpback whales along Australia's east coast from the Great Barier Reef down to the Antarctic Ocean. This migration involves approximately one third of the world's humpback whales. Most female whales each spend about two weeks in Hervey Bay nursing their calves. Young whales also rest in the bay but very few adult male whales rest in the bay.[6] Whales can normally be seen in the bay between July and November each year, where they exhibit many playful behaviours.[7][8] There are many companies offering whale watching tours in the bay during that time.[2] There are strict rules applying to the operation of boats in the vicinity of whales to avoid harm or stress to the whales.[9] Due to the popularity of the albino whale Migaloo (first sighted in 1991), there are particularly strict rules relating to approaching Migaloo or any seemingly white whale that might be Migaloo.[10]

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References
  1. "Hervey Bay - bay in Bundaberg Region (entry 15808)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  2. "Whale watching in Hervey Bay: When to go, who to go out with and more". Queensland Uncovered. 11 October 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  3. A Voyage to Terra Australis, with an accompanying Atlas. 2 vol. – London : G & W Nicol, 18. July 1814.
  4. The Early History of Tasmania, R.W.Giblin 1928
  5. "Matthew Flinders Lookout, Dayman Park, Urangan, Hervey Bay, QLD". POI Australia. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  6. "Couple's lifetime work reveals mystery of Hervey Bay's humpback whales". Southern Cross University. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  7. "Where the whales play". Our Fraser Coast. Fraser Coast Regional Council. Archived from the original on 6 May 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  8. "Whales Hervery Bay". Fraser Coast Tourism and Events. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  9. "Whale watching". Department of Environment and Science. 17 November 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  10. "Share the Water" (PDF). Department of Environment and Science. Queensland Government. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 December 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
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