Sailing Whitsundays

Cid Harbour has 2 popular beaches. Sawmill Beach and Dugong Beach. There is a short bush walk between them and camping at both locations is possible by arrangement with National Parks.

Cid Island, which forms Cid Harbour with Whitsunday Island, was named in 1866 by Commander G.S. Nares, RN, in HMS Salamander but the harbour did not receive its official title until 1887 following surveys by Lieutenant G.E. Richards, RN, in HMS Paluma. Obviously the name followed on from that of the island. Nares' charts of 1866 showed the harbour as a watering place and because of this, the deep water in the harbour and its protected position it has been one of the most frequented anchorages in the area over the years. As to the location of the watering point, while it is popularly assumed this was the creek which flows through Sawmill Beach, such was not the case. The tidal nature of the mouth of that creek and the boulder-strewn nature of access to fresh water further upstream would make the watering task arduous. In fact the actual watering point as shown in Nares' charts was the creek about 500 metres south of Sawmill Beach and immediately east of Hughes Point where there is deep water access to within several metres of convenient basins fed from the hillside in rainy weather. Some notoriety attaches to the harbour because in 1878 the general area of the harbour was the scene of a fatal attack on the ketch Louisa Maria by Aboriginals though the exact location is not known.