History of Whale Watching
Hervey Bay in the 1980s had the reputation for being a sleepy little fishing village and a holiday destination for working class families. Caravan Parks started to pop up and Hervey Bay was soon titled the “Caravan Park Capital of Australia”. Young couple Brian and Jill Perry started a charter-fishing vessel when they purchased the original Tasman Venture and grew to become a popular business with daily departures. On 25 August 1987 weather conditions were rough and Brian decided to take a rare change of direction to calmer waters in Hervey Bay between Fraser Island. When a large log was thought to be sighted, Brian soon realised this “log” was moving and they were watching whales not logs. The whales looked to be the same length as the 12 metre Tasman Venture. The whales seemed very approachable and quite interested in the boat which sparked the idea of running a whale watching ad in the Hervey Bay local paper. By 8am on the morning the ad was published, all 32 seats on the boat had been filled for the whale watching trip on Tuesday 1st September 1987.
On the day of departure, bad weather had struck with 20/25 knot southeaster winds and swells of 1.5 metres which is not ideal conditions for whale watching. Passengers were given the choice of getting off the boat or if they stayed on and no whales were spotted they would receive a free trip. This is a guarantee that many operators still stand by today. Brian decided to use a friend’s aircraft to try spotting whales from the air and leading the Tasman to those areas. After an hour or so with nothing in sight, they finally saw a splash and they were in business. At that time there was no radio communication between the boat and plane so their method of directing the boat was to drop one toilet roll for each two miles it was estimated to the whales. The boat travelled in a north-westerly direction and around six miles when finally two whales surfaced within a couple of metres of the Tasman, swimming around and under the boat.
After a huge interest from the media, whale watching season in Hervey Bay had begun! Around 3,500 people went whale watching during the first season. Brian and Jill soon realised slow vessels like the Tasman were not efficient enough and introduced the Half Day Whale Watching trip in a newer vessel which became an instant success. In 1990 Whale One introduced the ¾ Day Trip and other vessels such as Quick Cat II were introduced. In 1990 when the western side of Fraser Island was declared a marine park, all vessels were required to work under a permit system. Whale Watching has brought thousands of domestic and international tourists to the area. Whale Watching in Hervey Bay has not only largely increased tourism revenue but has shown travellers that it is just one of the activities available in the area showcasing Hervey Bay as a thriving destination. The population is now over 50,000 and the easy going nature of people residing here is believed to be the reason behind the success of all these successful ventures.