Nat Young in his Surfing & sailboard guide to Australia[2] rated it as a dubious kind of wave in mega southerly conditions.
In 1861, a plan was formed to construct a breakwater off Laggers Point to make Trial Bay a harbour of refuge for those ships too big to cross river mouths.
The breakwater they worked on was to extend some 1500 metres out into the bay, built from granite blocks quarried from the nearby hill.
A wharf had been built inside the breakwater in 1898, not meant for public use, but which ended up used regularly by passenger ships which could not navigate the Macleay River mouth.
It remained as a pile of stones until in 1959 funding from the West German war graves commission saw it rebuilt by the Kempsey Rotary association.