Details of the establishment of this agency are vague. It was also known as the Torquay Marine Board.;;;;Port Frederick is a bay on the Western Bank of the Mersey River in the locality originally known as Formby. The enterance to the river was blocked at the time by a sandbar restricting the size of vessels able to enter the river and the region developed largely using the alternative ports of Forth, Don and Port Sorell. The Devonport Council's Our History website records successive attempts to clear the sandbar between 1870 and 1890 were accompanied by an increase in shipping and by 1890 the depth of water at the enterance to the Mersey River had been increased to 24 feet.