Laggers Point is a headland on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is the end of the north pointing peninsula which is the eastern side of Trial Bay

Trial Bay

Trial Bay 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 beach on the inside of the bay is sheltered and the National Parks and Wildlife Service

National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales)

The National Parks and Wildlife Service is part of the Office of Environment and Heritage - the main government conservation agency in New South Wales, Australia....

 operates a popular campground there. A surfing

Surfing

Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

 wave is known to break across the sand, but it's not highly regarded. Nat Young

Nat Young (surfer)

Robert Harold "Nat" Young is an Australian surfer and author.Born in Sydney, New South Wales, Young grew up in the small coastal suburb of Collaroy. In 1964, he was runner-up in the Australian junior championship at Manly, and two years later was named world surfing champion in 1966. He won the...

 in his Surfing & sailboard guide to Australia rated it as a dubious kind of wave in mega southerly conditions.

Trial Bay Gaol and breakwater

In 1861 a plan was formed to construct a breakwater off Laggers Point to make Trial Bay a harbour of refuge for those ships too big to cross river mouths. Further plans included the idea to use prison labour for the construction, with a prison established specifically for that purpose. In 1877 work on the gaol commenced and in 1886 it was proclaimed a prison and inmates moved there.

The breakwater they worked on was to extend some 1500 metres out into the bay, built from granite blocks quarried from the nearby hill. Heavy gales caused damage to the structure as it progressed over the years. In 1898 and 1899 new wings were built on the prison, suggesting work was intending to continue, but in 1903 it was abandoned. Apparently the prison was costly to run and didn't fit with ideas of penology of the time.

About 300 metres of breakwater had been built, and it had shoaled up the bay considerably. A wharf had been built inside the breakwater in 1898, not meant for public use, but which ended up used regularly by passenger ships which could not navigate the Macleay River

Macleay River

The Macleay River is a major river on the Mid North Coast , Australia.The headwaters of the Macleay River rise as the Gara River on the eastern side of the Northern Tablelands near Armidale and Walcha, New South Wales. From here the Chandler River, Styx River and Apsley Rivers are important...

 mouth. Today only a small section of the breakwater remains, about 50 metres, and nothing of the wharf.

In 1915 the gaol was reopened to hold German wartime internees. Most were single men of some education and included officers of the German Army Reserve. A rumour went around in 1917 that a German landing party planned to free the men and when a German raider the SS Wolf

SMS Wolf (auxiliary cruiser)

SMS Wolf was an armed merchant raider or auxiliary cruiser of the German Imperial Navy in World War I...

 was seen in 1918 the men were moved to the large camp at Holsworthy

Holsworthy, New South Wales

Holsworthy is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Holsworthy is located 31 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool and partly in the Sutherland Shire.Holsworthy is most notable for...

 outside Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

.

This was the last use made of the prison and it was stripped and fixtures sold off in 1922. Today it's open to the public, operated as a heritage site by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

German monument

Four internees died during their time in the gaol and in 1917 their compatriates built a monument up on the hill for them. Supposedly during that building communication with the SS Wolf took place, though that would seem unlikely. The monument was destroyed by vandals in 1919, probably provoked by anti-German sentiment.

It remained as a pile of stones until in 1959 funding from the West German war graves commission saw it rebuilt by the Kempsey Rotary association.

Further reading

• Matthias Hannemann, Eingebuchtet in der Trial Bay, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (Reise), 4 June 2006, feature article about the Gaol (in German).

External links

• For photos of the area see the South West Rocks Photo Gallery
• For photos of Trial Bay Gaol see the Gaol Gallery at the South West Rocks Photo Gallery