Cedar Bay gained a degree of notoriety in the 1970s when the Bjelke-Petersen government destroyed a hippie commune that had been present there since July 1972, when it was started by people who had unsuccessfully tried to set one up in Kuranda.

[7][8] The raid was controversial because of the immense cost ($50,000) and use of a helicopter, light aircraft and a Navy vessel to arrest 12 people on drug and vagrancy charges.

[9] At the Cedar Bay inquiry, police were accused of burning huts, smashing personal belongings, destroying clothing, chopping down fruit plantations and, ironically, consuming alcohol at the site following the drug raid.

[11][12] In 2007, the Cedar Bay National Park was part of the 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi) of land handed over to Cape York's Aboriginal population by the Queensland government.

Birdwatching is a popular activity with the most common birds including cassowaries, yellow-breasted sunbirds, double-eyed fig-parrots, mangrove kingfishers, beach stone-curlews and pied imperial-pigeons.