Hardys Bay was named after Harry Hardy, who kept a small vineyard and sold wine to local residents. It is home to local shops and cafés, an RSL Club and a marina. The history of Hardys Bay and the surrounding areas of Wagstaffe, Killcare and Pretty Beach are closely linked. Prior to the arrival of European Settlement, Aboriginals from the coastal Guringai (Ku-ring-gai) tribe lived in and around Hardys Bay area. Evidence is to be found today in rock carvings and middens found in numerous locations around the area.

On 6 June 1789 Governor Arthur Phillip sailed north and entered Broken Bay and explored the surrounding coastline. The first recorded white settler was a Mr James Mullen (or Mullin) who was granted temporary occupation of 250 acres (1.0 km²) in 1824 for grazing and by the 1829 Census is recorded as having "50 acres (200,000 m²) of land, 10 acres (40,000 m²) cleared, 10 cultivated and having 3 horses and 115 cattle.

In 1859, Captain Daniel Joyce from New Zealand purchased a 50-acre (200,000 m²) grant from Mallen. (This is the land on which the Hardys Bay R.S.L. is currently located.) Joyce subsequently defaulted on his debt which forced the mortgagees to sell his land in Brisbane Waters which was purchased by Mr Robert Hardy, Farmer.

Access to Hardys Bay and the surrounding peninsular was via ferry until 1936 when the Scenic Road was opened. Electricity arrived in 1939 and town water was connected in 1980.

Large scale rutile mining took place over the hill at Putty and Killcare beaches in the 1960s and stripped the beach of its large sand dunes and destroyed many native plants, molluscs and animals. Miners had agreed to revegetate the area which they did with the noxious pest bitou bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera), which the various land care groups are now trying to eradicate.

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