Taken to Prison

One of the early trips we took during Brian and Daphne's visit was to the coast. They'd expressed an in colonial history and I thought they might be interested in seeing the prison at Trial Bay - an appropriate name for a gaol, but also perhaps one of the most gorgeous locations for such an institution. And, like any trip to the coast, there was much to see on the way.

We stopped for a while to view Ebor Falls. Fortunately, recent rain in the New England ranges near point lookout had generated a sufficient flow of water to make the falls look impressive.

A walk around the rim, revealed an ever deepening gorge with precipitous walls and secondary falls embedded in it ... and also a termite nest!

 

We travelled on to the Dorrigo National Park where the visitor centre now has some lovely murals depicting local wildlife and scenery as viewed from the perspective of the local Aboriginal tribe. It was time for some morning coffee after a quick walk along the sky-walk, which takes visitors our over the canopy of the sub-tropical rainforest below. Some of the magnificent views from the sky-walk are also attached here. Just look at the density of vegetation.

We got to Nambucca around lunch-time and after checking into our apartment hotel and a bite to eat we decided to head into the nearby back-blocks at Taylors Arm. I don't know who Taylor was or what happened to his arm, but the place is famous for Slim Dusty's Country and Western song about the put with no beer. The words to the song, which just about every Australian knows, are shown below. And the song came about because the tiny village of Taylors Arm was cut off from the outside world many years ago and the locals drank the pub dry while waiting patiently to get out.

This back country is very pretty - full of tree-clad mountains and green pastures. And here are Dot, Daphne and Brian (who's just about invisible) attempting to emulate the locals' feat of drinking the pub dry.

Inside it's a bit of a museum to Australian culture.

Trying to get back to Nambucca for an evening meal I took a wrong turning and found myself on an eternally winding dirt road which eventually headed in the right direction amidst gathering dusk. The next morning we piled back into our Rav4 and headed off to Trial Bay via Southwest Rocks and Arakun. How's this for the site of a prison? It was chosen because in the late 19th century most traffic between Sydney and Brisbane as by sea. The waters were often rough and the government of the day wanted to create an anchorage where vessels could safely ride out a storm. Someone had the idea of creating a large breakwater across Trial Bay near Southwest Rocks to provide safe waters and to use prisoners for the job and providing them with useful skills in the process.

Well, the construction job met with a series of disasters and never completed. All that remains of it is the short piece show in one of the pictures below. It wasn't the prisoners' fault that the job tanked. However, the first world war came along and the prison was used to house enemy aliens instead. So a variety of Germans and other nationalities found the way there - hence the word HUNs on the graffiti wall. Some of those assigned to Trial Bay were professionals and one, a doctor, was allowed to establish a medical practice besieged by locals who needed to see a medical practitioner.

After that war, the prison was abandoned and eventually stripped of fixtures and fittings to leave today's skeleton. It's also home to some local wildlife as well as being a museum.

After the short drive back to Nambucca, we took a walk along the estuary of the Nambucca River - pictured here from our bedroom window - nice spot, eh?

We came to a most peculiar breakwater - this time a successful one - which stretched perhaps a kilometre. Its wall was made from numerous  large rocks like those shown here and most had been decorated by families or social groups of one kind or another.

And so we came to the end of a perfect day, with the sun setting over the Nambucca River.

AS