80 km North of Port Macquarie, E off Pacific Highway. This gaol (open 9 am to 4.30 pm; entry fee http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/Arakoon-National-Park/Trial-Bay-Gaol/tourist-information) was built in the 1880s, by the convicts, for themselves – and it shows. If you must go to gaol, this is about as fine a setting as you could wish for – on a clifftop high above the sea. Prisoners were sent here from the other settlements in order to be trained in practical crafts, but the view must have proved too much of a distraction because within 20 years the place was abandoned. The gaol was briefly reopened in 1914 as an internment camp for 500 Germans – who were thus able to sit out the war looking at the view, while Aussies who weren’t so lucky as to be of German descent had to go off and fight. All that now remains is a surprisingly well-preserved stone prison (whose neat prisoner-built walls look suspiciously scalable) – and of course the spectacular nearby views.