Trial Islands Ecological Reserve

The Trial Islands are a group of islands located off the south-eastern tip of Vancouver Island off Victoria, part of the municipality of Oak Bay. The islands form the Trial Islands Ecological Reserve and entry outside designated zones is prohibited. It is likely that these islands were so named after the practise of sailing refitted British naval ships from the Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard to these islands and back as a trial run before heading into open seas. It has also been suggested that they were named because they constituted a trial of one's skill in navigation and seamanship. The trick was to round them in a small sailing ship and enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca, despite the frequent rip tides and the prevailing westerlies.: 272 The island is home to the Trial Islands Lighthouse and four large radio antennas operated under licence by CFAX 1070 AM radio.

CFAX (1070 AM) is a news/talk radio station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was independently run until September 30, 2004, when it was taken over by Canadian media company CHUM Limited. Its sister station is CHBE-FM, which began broadcasting in 2000. It is now owned by Bell Media through its Bell Media Radio division. The station moved into the same building as CIVI-TV, also owned by Bell Media, in March 2008. It is located at the corner of Pandora Avenue and Broad Street across from Victoria City Hall. CFAX's transmitter is located on the Trial Islands. The station placed 3rd in the fall 2018 Numeris Diary Survey for Victoria.

The major Trial Island is home to the Trial Islands Lighthouse which is operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, continues to be staffed by two full-time lightkeepers. The lighthouse was constructed in 1906. The fourth order Fresnel lens from 1906 was used until it was replaced in 1970. That original lens is now on display courtesy of the Maritime Museum of British Columbia in Bastion Square in Downtown Victoria. In September 2009 it was announced that the Trial Island Light would be automated to cut staffing costs. The Oak Bay Heritage Foundation proposed Trial Island Lighthouse for protection through the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act. Community support including stories and comments are gathered through the Friends of Trial Island Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/trialislandlighthouse Trial Island Lighthouse is Victoria's landmark lighthouse. In 2015, thanks to the work of the Oak Bay Heritage Foundation and strong public support, it was announced that Trial Island Lighthouse had been granted heritage status.

Victoria is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1872 to 1904 and since 1925. The riding was originally chartered as Victoria District for the special byelections held in 1871 upon the province's entry into Confederation. But, like the other B.C. ridings with that appellation, the "District" was dropped once the temporary ridings were ratified and made "permanent" for the general election of 1872; this was the first in which the Victoria riding (by that name) appeared. From 1905 up until the 1925 election, Victoria was represented by the riding of Victoria City.

McNeill Bay (aka Shoal Bay) lies within the boundaries of Oak Bay, British Columbia along the coast of Vancouver Island. It was named after Captain William Henry McNeill, master of the Hudson's Bay Company steamer SS Beaver, and one of the five original landowners of Oak Bay. On 14 March 1843 the SS Beaver anchored in this bay, with James Douglas (Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company) as the site for Fort Victoria was being scouted. The land where the esplanade currently runs along the shoreline was a gift from Rosina Irene Margaret Ross.

The Victoria Golf Club is a golf course located in the city of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada, which is part of metropolitan Victoria. It was established in 1893, and is now the oldest golf club in Canada still located on its original site; a rocky point on the South Eastern tip of Vancouver Island, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is also one of Canada's few courses that is open for play an average of 360 days per year. Several holes provide views of the ocean.This course is considered by some to be the oldest west of the Mississippi. however the Gearhart Golf Links in Gearhart, Oregon are older by a matter of months. The course today plays to par 70 for men, 73 for women, and its length is just over 6,000 yards from the back tees. The club celebrated its centennial in 1993, by hosting the Canadian Amateur Championship.

South Oak Bay is a neighbourhood located in the Municipality of Oak Bay, British Columbia, to the south of Oak Bay Avenue and lying east of the boundary between Oak Bay and Victoria, British Columbia.

The Victoria Harbour Migratory Bird Sanctuary or VHMBS is a 30 km protected area on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, in the Greater Victoria metropolitan area. It is located within the traditional territory of the Lekwungen People. The sanctuary is recognized as a critical habitat for bird conservation, and is home to an estimated 270 bird species, many of which are migratory. The sanctuary encompasses about 30 kilometres of coastline, an area covering approximately 1841 hectares (4549 acres) in total. Of this total, 31 hectares are terrestrial, and 1810 hectares are marine.

The Oak Bay Marina is located in South Oak Bay, adjacent to the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Built on Turkey Head Point, the Oak Bay Marina is operated by The Oak Bay Marine Group. It is home to a fuel dock, gift shop, coffee shop and restaurant as well as some private and community organisations: C-Tow Victoria (Greater Victoria Marine Assistance Ltd), Gartside Marine boat repairs (equipped with one railway boat lift located near the front Oak Bay Marina), Vela Yacht Sales, Oak Bay Sailing School, 12th Garry Oak Sea Scouts, Oak Bay Sea Rescue RCM-SAR Station #33, and the Oak Bay Recreation sailing program. Oak Bay Marina is a border and Customs check in point (phone box only) located at the fuel dock.

Sealand of the Pacific was a public aquarium in South Oak Bay at The Oak Bay Marina, near the city of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada. It housed a number of orcas: Haida, Nootka, and Tilikum. In 1991, all three were involved in an incident in which a trainer, Keltie Byrne, was killed. The aquarium subsequently closed and sold its orcas to SeaWorld.

The Abkhazi Garden was created in Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, in 1946 by Prince and Princess Abkhazi. The garden is known as 'the garden that love built' and was developed by Prince Nicolas Abkhazi and Princess Marjorie ('Peggy') Abkhazi (born Marjorie Mable Jane Carter, later Marjorie Mable Jane Pemberton-Carter) over the decades that they owned the property on Fairfield Road.Prince Nicolas Abkhazi fled Georgia for France soon after the Russian Revolution where he first met Peggy in 1922. During World War Two he joined the French army and was captured as a prisoner of war by the Germans. Peggy meanwhile had returned to Shanghai where she was interned by the Japanese from 1943 too 1945. They were reunited in New York in 1946 and later moved to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada where they remained the rest of their lives. Not long after their deaths the garden was purchased by The Land Conservancy of British Columbia with plans to steward the land as a garden in perpetuity to memorialize and share the story of the Prince and Princess Abkhazi. The garden is approximately one acre and features pathways of crushed gravel and stone paths that wind their way under rhododendron plants with different coloured flowers that have grown to the size of trees. Under the rhododendrons grow smaller flowers, ferns, and other shade tolerant plants. In the centre of the garden is a tea house and gift shop. A proposal was submitted in March 2022 to protect the garden by transferring the denser zoning of the property to a nearby property and submission of a request to officially recognize the property as a heritage property in the city of Victoria. This is after the city tried to impose a heritage designation that met resistance from The Land Conservancy of British Columbia while it underwent restructuring and sought to sell some properties to maintain financial stability. The Land Conservancy was later able to sell the parking spot that had been heritage designated by the city on Foul Bay Road and no longer required creditor protection by 2017. The fee to enter the Abkhazi garden is by a suggested donation of ten dollars.

Oak Bay is a municipality incorporated in 1906 that is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of thirteen member municipalities of the Capital Regional District, and is bordered to the east by the city of Victoria and to the north by the district of Saanich.