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 bay is named after the brig Trial which was shipwrecked there in 1816.
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. 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.
Famous quotes containing the words trial and/or bay:
“In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Baltimore lay very near the immense protein factory of Chesapeake Bay, and out of the bay it ate divinely. I well recall the time when prime hard crabs of the channel species, blue in color, at least eight inches in length along the shell, and with snow-white meat almost as firm as soap, were hawked in Hollins Street of Summer mornings at ten cents a dozen.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)