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 [REF].
Nelly Bay Post Office opened on 1 July 1927 (a receiving office had been open from 1923), closed in 1982 and reopened in 1994 [REF].