The land is mostly low-lying with elevations of 0 to 10 metres (0 to 33 ft) above sea level but there is one unnamed hill which rises to 100 metres (330 ft) in the north-east of the locality near the boundary with Ball Bay.[4]
The land use in the south of the locality is predominanly growing sugarcane, while the north of the locality near the sea is divided between suburban housing with the Haliday Bay Golf Course fronting onto the sandy beach of the bay Haliday Bay.[8]
History
The bay was named after "Captain" George Haliday, an Irish-born ship's engineer who served in the Royal Navy. He selected Portion 1371 in the Parish of Ossa in 1883. He collected built a coral-stone house with a thatched roof on the selection using stones he had collected from the beach and lived there until 1887. The house was called Bellbrook or Bell Brook.[9] Haliday died in Melbourne in 1935.[10][11] Historically it has also been written as Halliday Bay.[5]
Demographics
In the 2016 census, Haliday Bay had a population of 167 people.[12]
In the 2021 census, Haliday Bay had a population of 172 people.[1]
Education
There are no schools in Haliday Bay. The nearest government primary school is Seaforth State School in neighbouring Seaforth to the west. The nearest government secondary school is Mackay North State High School in North Mackay to the south-east.[13]
^"Personal". Daily Mercury. Vol. 69, no. 217. Queensland, Australia. 12 September 1935. p. 3. Archived from the original on 19 August 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2024 – via National Library of Australia.