A varied day today. We had all day to head down to Port Macquarie, so we decided to take our time and head down the coast. We started at South West Rocks – a small town on the Macleay River. We had a look round the small, but interesting maritime museum, where one of the more bizarre exhibits (given where we are) was a British Seagull outboard.
The odd thing about this one was that it had apparently been used on a dinghy at Dunkirk to help evacuate the troops from the beaches. Quite how it ended up in South West Rocks was not clear!
From there we headed to Trial Bay Gaol. This jail is now largely ruined but has been kept as a museum. Its initial history was in a sense quite a positive one. It was developed under Sheriff Harold Maclean who was an advocate for penal reform. The idea was that prisoners who were coming to the end of their term could be rehabilitated by being housed in much better conditions and by being allowed to work. in this case the work was to be the construction of a breakwater to create a safe refuge for ships sailing between Sydney and Moreton Bay. There were very few safe harbours on that trip and so by creating a breakwater at Laggers Point, there would be a safe harbour to anchor. Between 1863 and 1866 10 steamships and 79 sailing ships were lost with a loss of life of 243 people. The government approved the funds for the breakwater in 1870.
However, work on the breakwater was constantly delayed and eventually started in 1889 when the prison was still partially built. The prisoners initially had the freedom to swim and fish when not working and didn’t have to wear prison uniform. They could even grow beards! However, this all changed with the death of Sheriff Maclean in 1890 and a much harsher regime took over. The breakwater suffered from problem after problem with sections being washed away in storms, one of which even created a new mouth for the Macleay River making the entrance much safer for ships and reducing the need for a breakwater. In the end it was abandoned and just a short remnant of it remains.
The prison suffered a similar fate being seen as too expensive to run and was closed in 1903. Until that is …. the outbreak of World War I. At this point it was opened up again in 1915 as an internment camp for Germans. Many of them were very prominent people – often businessmen and other professionals. However, whatever their status, they were regarded with suspicion and locked up. There were even two German Scientists attending the Congress of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at the request of the Australian Government who got interred – they couldn’t have timed their visit worse! With the armistice the Germans might quite reasonably have expected to be released once again. Many had wives and children in the community (it was only the men who were sent to the camp). However, that was not to be. They were sent to Holsworthy concentration camp instead. The Spanish Flu tore through the camp at this time killing many of them and the in mid-1919 the rest were then deported – often without their families – back to Germany. Of the 5,600 people held at Holsworthy only 306 were allowed to stay in Australia. There is a monument built by the German prisoners on the cliffs above the gaol. This was knocked down by locals in 1919, but was restored in 1960 with funds from local government and the German Consulate.
From there we headed won the coast a few miles to the Smoky Cape lighthouse. This was built in 1891 and is the highest light in New South Wales. From the headland there is a lovely view up towards Trial Bay and the mouth of the Macleay River. Trial Bay sounds like it was named after the gaol, but in fact was named after the ship Trial. While waiting near the Sow and Pigs Reef in Port Jackson for good winds to take her to Port Dalrymple, she was seized by a group of thirteen convicts who tried to sail her north, but got wrecked in what is now called Trial Bay.
After lunch here we headed further down the coast to hat Head National park and did a lovely walk round the Korogoro headland – around 4km with some very varied scenery and quite interesting walking! It was listed as a Grade 4 track and we did need to head round some rocky outcrops and other interesting sections, but a great walk. Throughout the day the lovely views had, as expected, been marred slightly by the smoke haze from the bushfires further south. As we drove south though, what was more unexpected was it getting darker and darker until, despite it only being mid-afternoon, we were driving along with headlights on and a completely orange sky. By the time we got to the hotel just after 3pm, this was the view from our balcony.
We decided not to head out again, not least because of it raining blackened leaves from the fires …..