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Whitehaven Bay was named in 1879 by Admiralty Surveyor for Queensland, Staff Commander E.P. Bedwell, RN in SS Llewellyn being one of many names from the then English county of Cumberland he gave to the Whitsunday area following James Cook's naming of the group as Cumberland Isles in 1770. The name particularly apt because of the extensive amount of dazzling white silica sand in and around the Bay.