Hervey Bay has an abundance of riches. It’s the stepping off point to World Heritage-listed K’gari, home to some of the world’s best whale watching encounters in a region recently accredited as a Whale Heritage Site and it has arguably the safest, family friendly beaches on the Queensland coast.
Kick off your shoes and relax. If you want to unwind, Hervey Bay has a laid-back lifestyle that welcomes barefoot walks along the beach, bicycle rides beside the ocean and eating takeaway fish and chips with your fingers.
Add its proximity to Lady Elliot Island, the southernmost coral cay on the Great Barrier Reef, world-class fishing, year-round swimming and boating and you can understand why visitors flock here. Hervey Bay has five fantastic safe-swimming beaches along its 16km Esplanade foreshore … each with tracts of beautiful sand looking out to calm, protected waters sheltered by K’gari (formerly Fraser Island).
Encounters with humpback whales (season July-October), turtles, dolphins and dugongs are possible through organised tours and by chance while out sailing or cruising on the water and from the beach. Pods of dolphins are often spotted playing off the shoreline or at the end of the Bay’s iconic Urangan Pier, where you can also see schools of fish and rays in the clear waters below.
