Harry Butler and his family established a small dairy, orchard and mixed farm in Picnic Bay.

The family experimented with the planting of pineapples and after building small huts adjacent to their house the island became a favourite weekend and holiday destination for mainland people.

The Butler family established an intermittent ferry service at the time they began their small tourist venture.

Tourist development on the island began in earnest when Robert Hayles built an hotel at Picnic Bay in 1899.

In 1898 Robert Hayles purchased the holiday facilities erected by the Butler family and constructed a two-storey hotel, dance hall and his own jetty west of that constructed by Harry Butler and close to the site of the present day jetty.

A new twenty-year lease agreement, granting the Hayles Company a 30-foot (9.1 m) Flinders Street frontage to Ross Creek for the construction of another depot, was signed in 1925.

[1] To facilitate his tourism venture Robert Hayles began a program of purchase or construction of small ferries.

These boats were to be the foundation of a much larger Hayles fleet that eventually operated in places such as Cairns, Darwin, Townsville, Sydney and Canberra.

From there they provided a cargo service to outlying mission stations, lighthouses and to settlements along the Victoria and Daly Rivers.

[1] While the Hayles family company continued to expand with a fortnightly Cairns to Green Island Service opened in 1928 and the introduction of Brisbane River Cruises in 1936 the outbreak of World War II in 1939 saw shipping operations cease when the Australian military requisitioned the company fleet.

The shelter shed at the end of the jetty was constructed under a Community Employment Program through the Townsville City Council in 1977.

At the end of the lease in 1981 the Picnic Bay Jetty Maintenance Fund was established with Hayles Magnetic the major user of the facility.

Plans, prepared by the Townsville City Council, indicated that the original location of the structure was slightly altered to allow better access for passengers.

They have utilised it for fishing and as a place to walk for recreation or exercise and to sit looking across Cleveland Bay to the vista of Castle Hill and the Townsville skyline.

[1] Members of the Island community advised Townsville Cultural Heritage staff that they had already established an "Interim Management Committee" to oversee the ongoing care of the jetty if the Queensland Government was no longer prepared to maintain the structure.

[1] 160 square concrete piers, installed by a cantilever pile driver, are evenly spaced along the length of the jetty.

The covered area is split into four by central walls which have been painted with murals by children from Magnetic Island State School.

The importance of the jetty to the island community was recently demonstrated through the proposal to set up a management committee to assume responsibility for the structure once it becomes obsolete to requirements.

[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.