Bingil Bay

Bingil Bay, a coastal resort, is 35 km south of Innisfail and 5 km north of Mission Beach. Named in about 1888, it is thought that the name was derived from an Aboriginal word describing a good camping place.

The prominent early European settlers in the Bingil Bay area were the Cutten family, four sons and four daughters who invested in various Queensland land holdings and acquired several homestead selections in Bingil Bay in 1888. They ultimately amassed 3000 acres, naming their estate Bicton. During the 1890s the Cuttens grew citrus, numerous tropical fruits, coffee and tea. Copra and tobacco were also cultivated, and a timber mill was built, mainly for fruit cases. The 1919 cyclone virtually obliterated the plantation, but remnant coffee and tea bushes survived in the forest regrowth. Some of the tea cultivars were used for the Nerada tea plantation, west of Innisfail, in 1960.

Bingil Bay became a noted conservation and holiday area when artist and conservationist John Busst, who lived at Ninney Rise and was an active member of the Innisfail Branch of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, introduced the Prime Minister, Harold Holt (1966-67), to it. Holt built a holiday house nearby, and there is a memorial to Busst on the rocks at Bingil Bay. The Clump Mountain National Park overlooks Bingil Bay, and the township adjoins two smaller rainforest parks. Two kilometres north of Bingil Bay there is the heritage-listed Garner family burial ground (1935-68). The Garners came to Bingil Bay to run a sawmill for the Cuttens, and in 1911 took up a farm selection.

Bingil Bay has several resort facilities, a foreshore reserve and a convenience store and its census populations have been: