Summary

This collection was purchased from the estate of Eustace Robert (Bob) Hayles who died in 1978. The Hayles family was largely responsible for the development of Magnetic Island as a tourist destination.

Bob Hayles's father, Robert Hayles, was born in London in 1843 and came to Australia in the sailing ship Nunda in 1861. For the next 37 years he was in turn shepherd, miner, grazier and hotelier, spending most of his time in the Charters Towers district.

In 1898 he visited Magnetic Island and was so impressed by its possibilities that he sold his other interests and built a hotel on the island. In 1900 he established a permanent tourist operation on Magnetic Island and built a jetty at Picnic Bay where he began a permanent passenger ferry service between Townsville and Magnetic Island. Realising the potential of the picnic trade, he purchased his first boat Bee in 1901. Twelve months later this ship was wrecked off Nobby Heads (Picnic Bay) and he and his sons built the Phoenix to replace it.

This fragmentary collection includes personal and business records.