Nelly Bay is a town on Magnetic Island and a suburb of the City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. In the , Nelly Bay had a population of 1,196 people. A tourism hub on the island, it is especially significant as the site of the ferry terminal, which links it to Townsville. History Robert Hayles, a local entrepreneur, started tourist ventures in the bay around 1911 and in 1917 correspondence between the Townsville Harbour Board and the Queensland Marine Department notes the existence of a jetty in the bay. During the Second World War an anti-aircraft battery was built on the foreshore of the bay. While the concrete foundations of the battery still exist, they are now overgrown, and surrounded by a housing estate. Nelly Bay Post Office opened on 1 July 1927 (a receiving office had been open from 1923), closed in 1982 and reopened in 1994. Nelly Bay Provisional School opened on 15 September 1924. In 1928 it became Nelly Bay State School. The school closed on 18 October 1942 but reopened on 1 October 1943. It changed its name to Magnetic Island State School in the 1970s. In the , Nelly Bay had a population of 1,196 people. In February 1984, Bob Katter Jr., the then new Minister for Northern Development, announced the $100 million development of a harbour and marina precinct in Nelly Bay proposed by Geoff Orpin, a former Maroochy Shire Councillor who moved to Magnetic Island in 1980. At the time, the project was to be called Magnetic Keys, and Katter insisted all environmental concerns would be addressed with construction beginning within six months. However, it was another 18 months before the developer was even able to obtain the correct permission and leases to perform feasibility and environmental impact studies in the bay. In 1987, the development was sold to the Linkon Group and Essington Developments, but Essington Developments sold their interests in the project soon-after to Pacific Properties Pty Ltd. While there was a large amount of interest in the development, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) delayed granting a permit due to the possible environmental effects of the proposed harbor development. In October 1987, they finally changed the zoning of the bay to permit the harbour development, but waited until October of the following year before issuing the necessary construction permit in an atmosphere of controversy. The permit included certain conditions