Cannonvale
Located in Giya Country, around 2 kilometres southwest of Airlie Beach, 18 kilometres northeast of Proserpine and 108 kilometres north-northwest of Mackay in the Whitsunday Region, the coastal locality of Cannonvale became part of a larger entity — the town of Whitsunday — when it was amalgamated with Airlie Beach, Jubilee Pocket, Shute Harbour and Shutehaven on 31 January 1987.
HMS Salamander's George Strong Nares named the valley south of Mount Dryander that ran down to Pioneer Bay after the ship's Assistant Surgeon, Richard Cannon, in 1866. As farming spread outwards from Proserpine, the district was known as Cannon Valley, but after town allotments near the beach were sold by public auction in 1904 the town at the valley's seaward end appeared in Council and Post Office records as Cannonvale. However, the locals preferred Cannon Valley Beach.
When a post office opened in 1930, it was named Deauville, but reverted to Cannonvale Beach in 1947. Today, the 'town' area is Cannonvale, with the hinterland running towards Strathdickie, the Bruce Highway, and Proserpine labelled Cannon Valley.
Under its various monikers, Cannonvale was the first point of access for the Whitsunday Islands, with three jetties used and discarded after cyclone damage between 1938 and 1958. Developments at Airlie Beach in the late 1950s, and the development of a deepwater anchorage at Shute Harbour in 1961 meant Cannonvale increasingly took on the role of dormitory suburb and the area's commercial centre through the 20th century's last three decades.
