SAILING DIRECTIONS. 
255 
PORT MACQUARIE is the embouchure of the River A. 
Hastings ; its entrance is about two miles and two-thirds to Se^I. 
the N.N.W. of Tacking Point. It is a bar harbour, and, like E* Coast. 
Port Hunter, is of dangerous access, on account of the banks 
of sand that project from the low north sandy point of en- 
trance, on which the sea breaks and forms sand rollers; 
these however serve to indicate the edge of the channel, 
which is about ninety yards wide. The south shore extends 
in a N.N.W. direction from Tacking Point to Green Mound, 
(a remarkable conical shaped hillock,) whence the south 
shore of the entrance trends in nearly a west direction to the 
narrow entrance opposite Pelican Point. 
Between Green Mound and the next projection the bar 
stretches across towards the sand rollers, and is about one 
hundred and twenty yards in extent. 
The deepest channel over it is within thirty yards of two 
sunken rocks, the outermost of which bears from Green 
Mound N. 45° W. (true), or N. 55° W., nine hundred 
yards. When Green Mound Point and the next point to 
the southward of it are in a line, you are within a few yards 
of the shoalest part of the bar.' After passing the bar, 
there are from two to four fathoms water. Since the exa- 
mination of this harbour, a penal settlement has been formed, 
and a pilot appointed to conduct vessels in and out. Off 
the entrance is a high rocky islet, the Nobby, -within which 
the channel is shoal and dangerous to pass. There is good 
anchorage in four, five, or six fathoms, about half a mile out- 
side of the bar, on a ba^k of sand, which gradually deepens 
for three miles to fourteen fathoms, upon any part cf which 
a vessel may anchor to await high water. 
Latitude of its entrance 31° 25' 32" S. 
Longitude 152 57 25 E. 
Variation of the compass 10 11 0 E, 
