Laggers Point facts for kids

Laggers Point is a piece of land that sticks out into the ocean on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It's the very end of a peninsula that points north and forms the eastern side of Trial Bay.

The beach inside Trial Bay is a calm and safe place. The National Parks and Wildlife Service runs a popular camping ground there. Sometimes, a surfing wave breaks on the sand, but it's not known as a great surfing spot.

Trial Bay Gaol and Breakwater

In 1861, people planned to build a long wall, called a breakwater, off Laggers Point. The idea was to make Trial Bay a safe harbor for very large ships that couldn't go into river mouths. They also planned to have people who were in prison help build it. So, a prison was built just for this project. Work on the prison started in 1877, and by 1886, it was officially a prison, and prisoners moved in.

The breakwater they worked on was meant to stretch about 1,500 meters into the bay. It was built from large granite blocks dug from a nearby hill. Strong storms often damaged the structure as it was being built over the years. Even though new parts were added to the prison in 1898 and 1899, suggesting work would continue, the project was stopped in 1903. It seems the prison was too expensive to run, and its methods didn't fit with the new ideas about how prisons should work at the time.

About 300 meters of the breakwater had been built. It had also made parts of the bay much shallower. A dock, called a wharf, was built inside the breakwater in 1898. It wasn't meant for everyone to use, but passenger ships that couldn't get into the Macleay River mouth often used it. Today, only a small part of the breakwater, about 50 meters, is left, and the wharf is completely gone.

In 1915, the prison was opened again. This time, it held people from Germany who were living in Australia during World War I. Most of them were single men who had a good education. In 1917, a rumor spread that a German landing party planned to free these men. When a German ship, the SS Wolf, was seen in 1918, the men were moved to a larger camp near Holsworthy, outside Sydney.

This was the last time the prison was used. In 1922, everything inside was taken out and sold. Today, the prison is open to the public. The National Parks and Wildlife Service looks after it as a historical site.

German Monument

Four of the German people held at the prison died during their time there. In 1917, their fellow prisoners built a monument for them on the nearby hill. There was a story that during the building of this monument, people communicated with the German ship SS Wolf, but this seems unlikely. The monument was destroyed by vandals in 1919, probably because of strong anti-German feelings at the time.

It remained a pile of stones until 1959. Then, with money from a German war graves commission, the Kempsey Rotary association rebuilt it.

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

• 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

Images for kids

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  Laggers Point from Trial Bay Gaol, NSW

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  Trial Bay Gaol, NSW