Trial Harbour

Trial Harbour is a small anchorage on the West Coast, Tasmania and historical locality, located in the northern part of Ocean Beach, Tasmania. It was an exposed and particularly vulnerable anchorage which was susceptible to the prevailing local weather of the Roaring Forties, seventeen miles north of Macquarie Heads (the entrance to Macquarie Harbour).

Indigenous usage

Carvings and middens were identified in the 1930s and 1990s.[1][2]

European usage

It was named after the cutter Trial, which first anchored there in 1881,[3] and it was established by four Baltic sailors, Gustav Weber, and the three Karlson brothers, Karl, Peter and Steve, otherwise known as the Russian Finns.[4][5][6]

The harbour was utilised for a short while during the establishment of the early mining communities of Zeehan, and Queenstown, prior to the establishment of the settlements and facilities at Strahan and Regatta Point. It came under the control of the Hobart Marine Board.[7]

It had two hotels and other facilities in its early days[8] and currently it is the location of holiday homes.

It has been also a location on the west coast where whales have been sighted close to shore.[9]

Further north along the coast – a similarly dangerous and exposed location was Granville Harbour.

Notes
  1. Jones, J. F (1937), Aboriginal carvings found at Trial Harbour, retrieved 24 December 2019
  2. Jones, Julie; Caville, Jeanymaree (1993), Sites at Trial Harbour, West Coast of Tasmania, retrieved 24 December 2019
  3. "HOBART SHIPPING". Launceston Examiner. Tasmania, Australia. 10 February 1882. p. 2. Retrieved 25 December 2019 – via Trove.
  4. The Peaks of Lyell pp.18 of the fourth edition
  5. "The Karlson Brothers". The Advocate (Australia). Tasmania, Australia. 7 January 1924. p. 4. Retrieved 25 December 2019 – via Trove.
  6. "EARLY HISTORY OF MOUNT LYELL". The Mount Lyell Standard And Strahan Gazette. Tasmania, Australia. 20 February 1897. p. 4. Retrieved 25 December 2019 – via Trove.
  7. "TRIAL HARBOUR". The Mercury. Hobart, Tas. 3 November 1890. p. 4. Retrieved 28 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. page 184 of Atkinson, Sue, (Museum consultant), (compiler.) (2012), Tasmania : island of treasures, 40 Degrees South, ISBN 978-0-9874468-1-7CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. "Whales at Trial Harbour". The Mercury. Hobart, Tas. 22 February 1938. p. 2. Retrieved 28 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.

References
  • Whitham, Charles (2003). Western Tasmania – A land of riches and beauty (Reprint 2003 ed.). Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.


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