Trial Bay Gaol is a heritage-listed former public works prison and internment camp at Cardwell Street, Arakoon, Kempsey Shire, New South Wales, Australia. The property is owned by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 14 May 2010.
History
Colonisation of Trial Bay
Prior to European settlement in Australia the land now known as Arakoon National Park where Trial Bay Gaol is located was associated with the Dunghutti people who lived and moved through the Macleay Valley following the seasonal supply of food resources. The Macleay River, South West Rocks Creek, Salt Water Creek and the ocean would have supplied the indigenous people with fish and shell fish and the dunes in the area may have been a source of edible plants. Other plants found in the area such as cabbage palm, and fern roots may have made the area around Trial Bay Gaol attractive to the pre-contact Dunghatti people.
Arakoon National Park would have also been frequented by Aboriginal people to maintain their cultural lives as the area is near the Smokey Cape Area which is closely associated with sacred beings such as Ulitarra important in the north coast Aboriginal creation stories. A site of spiritual significance to the local Aboriginal people is located near Trial Bay Gaol and another in nearby South West Rocks would have been a focus of ritual activity for the Dunghatti people.
One of the earliest contacts between the European settlers and the local Aboriginal people is reported to have occurred when the brig "Trial" was shipwrecked at what became known as Trial Bay in 1816. This ship, owned by Simeon Lord, had been hijacked by a number of convicts in Port Jackson who, in a bid for their freedom, forced the crew to set sail north up the coast. There was no news of the ship's progress until word of a shipwreck on the coast above Port Stephens was relayed to the Europeans by Aboriginal people. There were a number of survivors from the wreck who subsequently lost their lives attempting to sail or trek back to a settled area. It was reported that one female convict went to live with an Aboriginal man and had two children by him.
European settlement in the area began to accelerate after 1836 and the impact of this on the Aboriginal community was marked by the dispossession of the Aboriginal people from their lands and thus their means of survival. By the 1860s many local Aboriginal people depended on government rations or rations from the settlers who had taken their land, often providing labour for the farms in return for rations. During the 1870s and 1880s moves were made to establish Reserves on which Aboriginal people should live and in the Macleay Valley such sites were located at Pelican, Shark, Kinchela and Fattorini Islands and at Euroka Creek. The initial step forwarded afforded by allocating Aboriginal people land was eroded through the implementation of the Aborigines Protection Board Act in 1909 which enabled the Board to remove children from their families and invested the power over Aboriginal peoples earnings to the Reserve Manager. All earnings from the land and other sources was turned over to the board in exchange for the provision of rations. Many people at this stage moved off the Reserves to camps and in 1925 the Reserves in the lower Macleay Valley were revoked.
In the course of his exploration of the north coast of the NSW colony, John Oxley noted Trial Bay as a sheltered bay and the area was soon noted as a safe haven for shipping travelling between Port Stephens and Moreton Bay. While it provided shelter during south-easterly gales, however, it offered no protection when the gale-force winds were easterly or north-easterly. To remedy this, Engineer in Chief for Harbours and Rivers, Edward Orpen Moriarty began to formulate a plan to construct a breakwater and safe harbour at Trial Bay in 1861. By 1866 the plan was considered by the NSW Parliament and finally, in 1877, a sum of money amounting to 10,000 pounds was set aside for the construction of the breakwater and also a gaol to house the prisoner labour force that would be assigned to the project.