The indigenous Butchulla people are the traditional residents of Hervey Bay. The first recorded European sighting of Hervey Bay was made by James Cook while carrying out his running survey of the east coast of Australia, on the 22 May 1770. "By noon Cook's ship was in a position a little over half-way across the opening of Hervey Bay heading for Bundaberg. Cook named the bay "Hervey's Bay" after Augustus John Hervey (1724�1779), later Third Earl of Bristol, a naval officer who became a Lord of the Admiralty the year Endeavour returned".
Until around the mid 1980's the area was serviced by a rail link from the Main North Coast line that diverted from Aldershot and went through Takura, Walligan, Nikenbah then on to Pialba and Urangan. The line was a major freight point for the Port of Maryborough and for the sugar cane industry until road transport assumed the role
