Narrabri product Harvey, 20, only made his debut in round 4 as a substitute but the gifted outside back continued to make such a strong impression that he became a team mainstay.
With quality goalkicking among his attributes, he finished with 98 points from 11 appearances, including six tries - the fourth-highest tally in the competition.
"It's incredibly special to win this award. It's the first time this award's been here so to win it, it's pretty cool," Harvey said.
"I'm incredibly grateful to the Waratahs for the opportunity to play so many games and to the coaches, Dan (McKellar), Locky (McCaffrey), Catty (Mike Catt), to back me and all the boys to continue backing me. Letting me make mistakes and letting me learn.
"I think it helped me massively and anything good I did was off the back of other people doing their jobs really well."
All Black Tupaea and Highlanders centre Timoci Tavatavanawai finished level on player of the year votes, with the Chiefs star claiming the honour via the tiebreaker of receiving more 'three votes' from the independent media panel across the season.
He was a consistently strong factor as the Chiefs finished second in the regular season - before going on to reach Saturday's grand final against the ladder-topping Hurricanes.
Waratahs star Max Jorgensen was third in the voting with Western Force playmaker Ben Donaldson fourth.
Nine clubs are represented in the competition's inaugural team of the year, which was selected using the top performers in the player of the year voting across each position.
Super Rugby Pacific team of the year:-
Props - Ethan de Groot (Highlanders), Xavier Numia (Hurricanes)
Hooker - Samisoni Taukei'aho (Chiefs)
Second row - Jeremy Williams (Western Force), Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (Queensland Reds)
Back row - Anton Segner (Blues), Leicester Fainga'anuku (Crusaders), Fraser McReight (Queensland Reds)
Scrum half - Ryan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies)
Fly half - Ben Donaldson (Western Force)
Wingers - Max Jorgensen (NSW Waratahs), Caleb Tangitau (Highlanders)
Centres - Quinn Tupaea (Chiefs), Timoci Tavatavanawai (Highlanders)
Fullback - Jock Campbell (Queensland Reds)
