A free directory of businesses across Wide Bay, from Hervey Bay and Maryborough to Bundaberg, Bargara and Childers. As of October 2026 it lists 3,847 businesses in 289 categories across 129 suburbs and towns.
The Fraser Coast ranked third in Australia for its share of people moving to the regions in the year to December 2025, and first for moves from other regions (Regional Australia Institute, Regional Movers Index, December 2025); it was still a top-five destination for people leaving the capital cities in the March quarter of 2026.
The Fraser Coast has grown 20% in 10 years to 122,924 people and Bundaberg 14% to 107,297 (ABS Regional population 2024-25), 230,221 between them, and both are projected to keep growing in the years ahead (Queensland Government projections, 2025 edition).
The new Bundaberg Hospital is funded with more than 410 beds and treatment spaces, stage 1 of over 200 beds due by 2031, and Hervey Bay Hospital is funded for 35 more beds (Queensland Government statements, 2023 to 2026).
Many newcomers arrive retired or close to it, buy a house in Hervey Bay or Bargara, and once they settle in need a GP, a landscaper and an electrician before they know a single local. That is the gap this guide fills, for them and for the business owners here.
This business guide covers the two councils that make up Wide Bay. The Fraser Coast: Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Howard, Tiaro and the barge towns for K'gari. The Bundaberg region: Bundaberg, Bargara and the Coral Coast, Childers, Gin Gin and the cane country between them. Gympie belongs to the Sunshine Coast guide.
The North and South Burnett, and Gladstone, are not included, but may be included in future local guide releases.
Bundaberg is farm country first: 1,363 agricultural businesses at June 2025, just ahead of construction at 1,279 (ABS Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2025). The Fraser Coast is the other way round, construction 1,538 then health care 818. Between them 14,646 businesses, and a share of retirees that makes GPs, physios and home maintenance trades the most-searched categories.
Every 24 hours each listed website and business is scanned again to ensure accuracy, a Hervey Bay cafe as methodically as a Bundaberg plumber. We won't remove a listing for a website that loads slowly, blocks automated visitors or times out.
A listing is removed only when the business is confirmed as no longer operating, or when its owner tells us. Licensed trades carry the number matched to the Queensland QBCC register. Claimed pages sit first; nobody pays for position.
Retired to the Bay, or up for work? New to Wide Bay helps from the day you arrive: a GP and a pharmacy first, then a mower, a surfboard hire at Bargara, and the rest, town by town.
Marlowe Bennett runs this guide. He founded Coastworks AI, a Queensland consultancy that builds websites, email marketing and AI automations for small businesses, after 30 years in service businesses, and he pays for the guide and runs the system behind it.
That system scans every listed website each day; anything it cannot verify itself waits for Marlowe and his team to check. Nothing on a listing is influenced by Coastworks AI. Questions about a listing go to [email protected] or 0495 039 007.
Which listings are offered to Google, and how a listing is added, checked, claimed, fixed or removed: how this guide is built. The same guide runs in other regions, built the same way: all the local business guides. Business owners can also ask for a free Growth and Automation Audit of their own website.
The same daily-checked guide runs in other regions, built the same way by Coastworks AI.
The full breakdown by suburb and category is at the numbers.