Tannum Sands
Located on the other side of the Boyne River estuary from its twin town, Boyne Island — hence the local acronym BITS— 17 kilometres southeast of Gladstone in Gureng Gureng Country, the coastal locality of Tannum Sands is a dormitory suburb for the nearby Boyne Island Aluminium Smelter and the Gladstone-based industrial zone.
The area south of the Boyne River, successively known as Redcliff and Wild Cattle Creek — the name of the creek that flows through the locality — was a popular fishing and picnic location with a surf beach on its ocean frontage, until a dozen beachfront lots were auctioned in the late 1930s. The name Tannum reputedly stems from a remark about a group of sunburnt children on a Sunday School picnic — they really tan 'em over there — which jelled with someone from the Lands Department, who registered the name. The Secretary for Public Lands changed it to Tannum Sands in April 1951.
Still, the locality remained relatively isolated until a bridge connecting Tannum Sands to Boyne Island opened in October 1980.
