Trial Bay (New South Wales)
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Trial Bay ([1]) is a broad bay on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The bay faces northwards and extends from Laggers Point in the east around to Grassy Head to the west, past the town of South West Rocks and the Macleay River mouth.
The bay is named after the brig Trial which was shipwrecked there in 1816. She was in Sydney Harbour waiting to sail to Van Diemens Land when captured by 13 convicts. They took her and 8 or 10 passengers and crew northwards. A military party sent out failed to find them, but aboriginal reports of a wreck on the north coast resulted in a further expedition under Captain White. On 14 January 1817 he found parts of the wrecked Trial on the beach at what is now called Trial Bay.
White and his soldiers searched for survivors of the wreck but found nothing. The local aborigines reported some had built a vessel out of planks, but they were not found. Stories of a white woman living in a wretched state among the aborigines persisted, believed perhaps to have been a stowaway on the Trial. In 1831 apparently a reward was offered for restoration of such a survivor of the Trial, resulting in a woman said to be Emily Bardon wife of the captain being found, but 14 years of living wild had left her demented and she died soon after reunited with her relations.
In 1820 John Oxley explored the area. He reported Port Macquarie as more favourable for settlement than Trial Bay, though Trial Bay might offer an anchorage while waiting for favourable winds to cross the bar at Port Macquarie.
Trial Bay has a northerly facing and is sheltered from the predominant southerly swells. There have been various plans over the years to make it a full harbour, protected in all conditions. Its location in between other sheltered waters of Moreton Bay and Port Stephens recommended such a project. In the 1880s through to 1900s an attempt at a breakwater was made off Laggers Point (see that article). In the 1960s an oil terminal established near South West Rocks reignited interest in a harbour, but the Department of Public Works concluded the cost would not be warranted.
[edit] References
- Valley of the Macleay, Marie H. Neil, 1972, ISBN 0-85587-037-0
