gaol

Trial Bay Gaol

Trial Bay Gaol was designed to be used as a Public Works Prison and was later converted to a Wartime Detention Camp. Transportation of convicts was long time past when this prison was built so it is not a reminder of the penal colony days. Nor did it give out harsh treatments as some of the early day prisons. It was a prison built for reform of the inmates for return to normal society. A progressive step in 1861 .

Close to the turn of the millinium we saw the ruins of the gaol designed to house men as they attempted to build a breakwater. Now posing atop a rocky headland the gaol offered a breath of silence. The quiet ringing in my ears as my steps echoed along the pinkish grey granite. Some walls so blackened as I turned I wondered had it been fire that took the roof from this building. However in the museum section of the gaol it was explained that the roof as well as all removable gates were sold by auction after the prison was abandoned following it's use as a wartime detention camp. It seems weathering and corrosion is having it's way with the stone walls.

December 28, 1999

Inside the Gaol... Once inside looking up and down the formidable walls discoloured from the weather and tortures of the years of being open to the sky... I could only stand amazed at the solid contruction of the prison. How the walls held solid after such a long time as I looked down the corridor to the cell units. Even though it was a prison from a reform movement it gave me shivers.

Looking at the Gaol from an architectual viewpoint however I was taken with the arches and the shadows created by the roofless condition. As the sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds the shadows kept changing and moving about. It was a perfect day to visit as I snapped picture after picture.

The iron teeth remaining from the prison bars hanging down jagged from weather wear lined the open jaws of the entrance as we passed through. The repeating arches inviting us in deeper as each opening lined up perfectly with the previous. The coolness of the walls giving a comfort of shade as the uneasy feeling left and was replaced with a feeling of respect for the inner design.

The open area was the location of the three timber huts erected in the late 1880's. The best behaved were permitted to sleep here without locks! By 1900 the concrete cells were completed and the huts taken down as the prisoners were given back into a cell type of living. Wooden structures were introduced to this yard a second time during WWI when it was used as a internment camp. Below shows the bay... with the end of the sad history of discontent, the breakwater never completed and many of the Germans shipped back to Germany the area has returned to a peaceful atmosphere with only visitors to disturb the slumber and waken it from it's unfinished dreams and nightmares.