The Town of 1770 is a small place with a large date for a name. It marks James Cook's first landing in what is now Queensland, but it does not feel like a museum town. It is a low, quiet settlement on Bustard Bay, with boats at the marina, mangrove edges, headland walks, and sunsets over water.
Most travelers treat 1770 and nearby Agnes Water as one stop. Agnes Water has the open surf beach; 1770 has the calmer bay, the history, and the reef departures. Together they make one of the better pauses on the long Queensland coast between Bundaberg and Gladstone.
The best day here is simple: walk the headland in Joseph Banks Conservation Park, swim or surf at Agnes Water, then use 1770 as a launch point for Lady Musgrave Island or the amphibious trips north toward Bustard Head. It is not a big town, but it has enough landscape and story to reward a spare day.