In honour of Tom Jeffrey who, with his wife Beth, bought the Agnes Water area freehold in 1945. They continued to live on their Miriam Vale farm but ran stock on the large coastal freehold. After fire destroyed 100 citrus trees and six acres of bananas at the farm, the family moved permanently to Agnes Water.
Tom welcomed visitors to the area and, over time, built and provided amenities including toilets, showers and several shacks for rental. He also established a fresh water supply and provision for super and standard petrol, porta-gas and kerosene. Some visitors stayed in tents and others built weekend and holiday homes close to the beach.
More than 80 shacks and houses existed at the time of the area`s first subdivision in 1978, requiring most of the dwellings to be removed or demolished. Tom passed away in 1984 and, although the family still has land interests in the area, only one family member still resides here.