Cascades Female Factory Historic Site in South Hobart, Tasmania, Australia | Museum

Cascades Female Factory Historic Site

Locality: South Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Phone: +61 3 6233 6656

Address: 16 Degraves Street 7004 South Hobart, TAS, Australia

Website: http://www.femalefactory.org.au

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25.01.2022 August is National Family History Month! Over the years, we have had the lucky opportunity to meet many family history researchers who visit the Cascades Female Factory to walk in the footsteps of their convict relatives. Their stories not only represent the grit and gumption of past family members, but also the hard work that goes into ensuring they are remembered for years to come, warts and all. So every week this month we will be introducing you to convict women whos...e family legacy can still be felt today, starting with one of our very own tour guides, Mel. She is the 4 x great granddaughter of Mary Ann Frowd, a woman sentenced to death for housebreaking, only to have her sentence commuted to transportation for life to Van Diemen’s Land where she first stepped foot in 1833. Like many convict women of her era, Mary Ann had not had an easy life. By the young age of 23 she had already committed two other crimes and had been living 'on the town' for four years. Mel says, ‘I like getting to talk to our visitors about Mary Ann because it gives a sense of personal connection to the Female Factory. These women were tough by necessity, and coped through remarkable hardship, and I’m proud to have come from that heritage. It’s a history I will gladly pass onto my daughter as she grows up.’ Despite Mary Ann’s rocky beginnings and life sentence, she served only seven years as a convict and went on to be the third wife of a man who had been transported for bigamy - oh, the irony! The pair went on to have nine children and raised them right in the middle of Hobart where Mary Ann lived a long and full life, eventually passing away at the ripe old age of 91. Do you have convict ancestry? We would love to hear it! Tell us your story with the hashtag #mystory... Photo credit: Jhon Entrop #nationalfamilyhistorymonth World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond

25.01.2022 We are officially counting down, just five days until we reopen our historic site to you! After three long months of closure we are swinging open our gates this Friday 3 July, just in time for school holidays. We are offering free entry to children from now until the end of the year, so now is the perfect time to bundle the whole family up and take in some local history here in South Hobart. ... As we reopen our sites, our teams are taking every precaution to ensure a safe and healthy environment for our staff, visitors and community. When you visit you may notice that we are: - Regularly sanitising frequently touched surfaces - Reducing our tour sizes and continuing to offer self-guided tours - Encouraging cashless transactions For details on what tours will be on offer, as well as to book your visit with us, we encourage you to access our website: https://femalefactory.org.au/ See you soon! Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Photo credit: Alastair Bett

24.01.2022 There are over 13,000 stories of female convicts in Van Diemen’s Land, many with twists and turns worthy of a novel. In an obituary published in a New Zealand paper in 1911, a woman named Annie is remembered as ‘one of the fast diminishing band of pioneers who had a hand in settling a small, respectable town named Invercargill on the country’s South Island. No mention is made of her orphan upbringing, her transportation as a convict to Van Diemen’s Land 66 years earlier, th...e tragic deaths of two of her children or the two husbands she outlived. Annie was remembered in the twentieth century as a successful pioneer, and we remember her as one of many convicts who used her transportation to the other side of the world as an opportunity to start her life over, not just once, but twice. Read Ann Fitzpatrick’s fascinating story here: https://www.femaleconvicts.org.au//AnnFitzpatrick_SeaQueen Photo credit: Alastair Bett #worldheritage #australianconvictsites #femaleconvicts #discovertasmania

23.01.2022 We are open! After 105 days of closure our team is thrilled to be back on site. If you are a local and have ever wondered what stories lurk behind our sandstone walls now is the perfect time to book a session with one of our expert guides for a near-personal tour. We are open seven days a week from 10.00am - 4.00pm and conduct tours all throughout the day. We are offering free entry to children from now until the end of the year, perfect timing for the upcoming school holi...days! The health and safety of our staff, visitors and community continues to be our foremost priority, so when you visit you may notice that we are: - Regularly sanitising frequently touched surfaces - Reducing our tour sizes and continuing to offer self-guided tours - Encouraging cashless transactions For details on what tours will be on offer, as well as to book your visit with us, we encourage you to call the site on 1800 139 478 or access our website - www.femalefactory.org.au. Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites

23.01.2022 On these crisp spring days many of our local tourists have been choosing to make the journey from the centre of town to South Hobart on foot. What many don’t know is that they may have just walked in the footsteps of the first group of convict women to enter the Cascades Female Factory in 1828. The illustration below is the corner of what is now Murray and Macquarie streets and what was once the site of the first female factory in Van Diemen’s Land. Established in 1821, the... Hobart Town Female Factory was a ramshackle institution separated from the male prison by a thin brick wall, made up of just four rooms, and in full view of the execution yard next door. Escapes were rampant, as this article in the Town Gazette suggests, as Dr. Westbrook was passing the Female Factory, he observed two women creeping through a hole which had been made in the wall, and the constable standing unconcernedly looking on. The superintendent would come to find out that seven other women had escaped just that night! Seven years after the Hobart Town Female Factory opened its doors, the Cascades Female Factory replaced it. Far away from town, overshadowed by kunanyi and bordered by high sandstone walls, it’s first inmates must have thought it was a fortress compared to the old one. Keen to know more about the network of female factories across colonial Tasmania? Come and join us for a tour this weekend, the weather is looking fine! Image: Tasmanian Archive & Heritage Office Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites

22.01.2022 In the lead up to our reopening on 3 July our tour guides have been dusting off some of their most intriguing convict stories. A crowd favourite concerns the capture of a murderous bushranger by a 23 year old convict named Isabella, and her free-settler husband, James Kerr. On a winters day in June 1836, Isabella was in their home at Nile Rivulet, likely tending to their infant son, and James was digging potatoes in their garden when a man appeared from behind a nearby shed,... his gun at the ready. ‘Who are you?’ James described himself asking, ‘I will very soon let you know who I am’, the man replied. Unbeknownst to the young couple, the man was Henry Hunt, a convict turned bushranger who had escaped from a Launceston chain gang some months before, murdered two people and stolen from numerous others. James described the ensuing struggle to the Colonial Times newspaper: ...I seized his hands holding his finger from the trigger and called out ‘Murder’. My wife came to my assistance with my musket loaded with ball... I directed her to hit him on the head. She stepped on the opposite side and struck him with the butt which broke in her hand. At this time, the man's pistol snapped at my breast and she tried to wrench it from him but could not. She then repeated the blow upon his head with the barrel of the musket. He received four blows from her and he called out, ‘Hit me no more. I am a done man.’ Henry Hunt succumbed to his injuries three weeks later and Isabella was rewarded with a free pardon for her ‘meritous conduct’ in his capture. Isabella and James were eventually given a monetary reward for their heroism and went on to start a new life in New South Wales. You can read Isabella’s remarkable story in full via the Female Convicts Research Centre - https://www.femaleconvicts.org.au//IsabellaRenshaw_Hydery1 World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Hobart & Beyond #tassiestyle #convicthistory

22.01.2022 Want to learn more about convict women but don’t know where to start? Looking forward to experiencing Tasmania’s convict sites for yourself but can’t make the trip yet? We believe that leafing through a good book is the next best thing! We have a great selection of books available for you to purchase in our gift shop, but in these times of Covid we understand that browsing in-store isn’t always an easy option, which is why we have chosen a few of our best sellers for you to ...peruse in our Facebook Shop. Here we have included the whole ‘Convict Lives’ series, featuring a crowd of convict characters from the Cascades, George Town, Launceston and Ross Female Factories. As well as ‘Repression, Reform and Resilience’, ‘Van Diemen’s Women’ and ‘Abandoned Women’ by some of Tasmania’s most esteemed historians. Have a browse and send us a message for more information! Do you have a favourite book on convict history? #buysomethingtasmanian #makeyourselfathome World Heritage Australian Convict Sites

22.01.2022 Have you heard our good news? The Tasmanian Government recently committed $3 million towards our new History and Interpretation Centre! This project responds to a recommendation from the World Heritage Committee in 2010, when the Cascades Female Factory and 10 other sites were listed as the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property. We have known since then it had to be replaced! We launched an Architectural Design Competition in 2017, and Liminal Studio in partnersh...ip with Snøhetta and Rush Wright Associates were announced as winners the following year. The new building will follow the line of one of the original cell blocks in Yard 3 and also act as part of the sites interpretation, introducing people through a sense of confinement as visitors enter through a dark tunnel, with only glimpses of the sky above them as pictured in the design below. As one of the few remaining female factories in Australia and one that represents the experiences of 7,000 convict women, our History and Interpretation Centre will be hugely important to telling our convict story. We can’t wait to get started! You can read more about the History and Interpretation Centre by following this link - https://femalefactory.org.au//cascades-female-factory-des/. World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Hobart & Beyond #tassiestyle #convicthistory #womenshistory

22.01.2022 In the early morning of January 14 1829 a convict ship called ‘Harmony’ sailed into Sullivan’s Cove. 100 women disembarked and made the four kilometre walk through Hobart to the gates of the newly opened Cascades Female Factory. Among them was Mary Duff, a 23 year old convicted thief, farm servant, wife and mother sentenced to seven years transportation. Mary is a well-known historical figure today, not least because her descendants can be found from Tasmania to Queensland, ...but also because she was one of the first migrant settlers of Melbourne. For the last week of National Family History Month we hear Mary’s story from her third great granddaughter, Heather. During her time as a convict Mary became well acquainted with the inside of a prison cell. She re-offended seventeen times, spent many days at the washtub or in solitary confinement, and even had her head shaved for ‘absenting herself from her Master’s house’. Despite her troubles with the law, Mary gained her Certificate of Freedom in 1833 and became the wife of James Gilbert, a blacksmith. Two years later they formed part of the small band of free settlers engaged by John Pascoe Fawkner to establish a new settlement in Port Phillip. Their supplies included two horses, pigs, poultry, dogs, trees, seeds, rum, 13 litres of gin and Mary’s pet cat, Gilbert. It was on the banks of the Yarra River that Mary gave birth to the first white child in Melbourne, and her son was aptly named John Melbourne Gilbert. 185 years on, a bust of Mary sits among the flowers of the Conservatory in Fitzroy Gardens and she is remembered by the many descendant's she left behind. In the words of Heather, Mary was a true survivor. I feel she was a very feisty lady and I admire her for her tenacity. She endured hardships and conditions throughout her life that many of us today could not even begin to dream of living through...I am extremely proud to be one of her descendants. #nationalfamilyhistorymonth World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond Images: bust of Mary Gilbert, courtesy of City Collection, Melbourne and Mark D'Alterio, Fitzroy Gardens. Painting depicting the unloading of the Enterprize in 1835 - figure of Mary Gilbert front left tending to a campfire, courtesy of Fitzroy Gardens.

18.01.2022 The Woman in Black In 1852 a convict ship named ‘Martin Luther’ arrived to Van Diemen’s Land carrying 212 convict women. One of them was Sarah Maguire, a 20 year old girl and yet quite an accomplished thief. In fact, by the time she died in 1916, Sarah would be known as one of the ‘most dexterous and experienced pickpockets in these colonies’. Over her 64 years in Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales, Sarah had 30 different prison sentences to her name, three aliases, five c...hildren and at least one exposé featured in a Sydney newspaper that described her pickpocketing method as ‘clean, rapid and skilful...She is invariably attired in fabrics of funereal shade, and so has won distinction as the woman in black. We invite you to read Sarah’s full story in ‘Convict Lives at the Cascades Female Factory, Volume 2’ as well as the stories of 29 other fascinating convict women. Their tales are diverse, ranging from young offenders to prosperous matriarchs, hardened criminals to first time lawbreakers, some who struggled within the imposing walls of the prison to others who triumphed. The book is available to purchase for $30.00 plus postage, please email [email protected] or call 0419 690 435 for any enquiries. Photo credit: State Archives of New South Wales & Convict Women’s Press World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Hobart & Beyond #tassiestyle #womenshistory

18.01.2022 The first hints of spring are making their way into the site today and it’s a beautiful afternoon for storytelling... ...so much so our neighboring ducks have come to join us. Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites ... #makeyourselfathome #cascadesfemalefactory See more

16.01.2022 Today marks 10 years since the Cascades Female Factory was inscribed on UNESCOs World Heritage List in 2010 as part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property. Our site was joined by 10 other convict sites spanning geographically diverse areas such as the Darlington Probation Station on Maria Island all the way to Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. This day represents the tireless work of many volunteers, researchers, heritage experts, family history enthusi...asts and local residents to see the Female Factory gain recognition for the unique role it played in Australia’s convict story. Over the Cascades Female Factory’s history as a convict institution, over a third of all female convicts transported to Australia passed through its gates. Its World Heritage status is reflective of developing attitudes on penal reform, convict women’s forced migration, and their eventual life pathways that contributed to the founding of Australia as we know it today. This contribution was not without the devastating impact colonisation wrought on our nation’s First People’s culture, land and resources. The land where the Female Factory now stands was once home to the muwinina people and still provides an important connection to Aboriginal people today. To commemorate the 10 year anniversary, the Australian Convict Sites Steering Committee has launched a series of videos that provide an insight to the global importance of these sites, these videos and further information on the Australian Convict Sites are available via the following link: www.australianconvictsites.org.au. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to tell the Cascades Female Factory’s fascinating story and see the site’s consistent growth from a little known grass yard to a cultural site of learning and convict legacy. #cascadesfemalefactory #worldheritage World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania Woolmers Estate Brickendon Estate Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Photo credit: Jonathan Wherrett

16.01.2022 We have enjoyed a week of crisp, blue-sky autumn days here in Hobart, perfect for hanging the washing out! Though we’re not sure our convict women would have looked forward to the job with quite as much glee. An arduous, back-breaking chore 200 years ago, it’s little wonder doing the washing was considered a form of punishment at the Cascades Female Factory. Women working at the washtub would have spent hours bent over tubs of cold water, using harsh carbolic soap to scrub b...edding from recently arrived convict ships, clothes sent from the male penitentiary or bandages from the Colonial Hospital. They would have heaved the items across washing lines, often waiting days for them to dry properly, only to have them sent back for being ‘wet - dirty - and stinking from lying damp in heaps’. Needless to say, we’re thankful for our modern conveniences! Photo Credit: Alastair Bett #convicthistory #femaleconvicts #worldheritage #australianconvictsites

14.01.2022 Having been open for over a week, our team is so grateful to all of the Tassie locals (and a few ‘mainlanders’) who have braved the cold and paid us a visit, many of whom have convict ancestors who walked through the same entrance way all those years ago. The Cascades Female Factory is a remnant of what it once was but the stories contained within its walls give us a glimpse into the Hobart Town of 190 years ago and the colourful convict characters who populated it. If you ...have been thinking about coming by, now is the perfect time, we would love to chat with you! Hobart & Beyond Discover Tasmania World Heritage Australian Convict Sites #makeyourselfathome Image: Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, NS1013/1/1453

11.01.2022 It’s been a wild and woolly few days tucked away beneath kunanyi/Mt Wellington here in South Hobart! Are you feeling brave enough to embrace the cold with us? How about you stop by the Female Factory on your way up or down the mountain and have a one-on-one tour with one of our guides and learn about our fascinating local history. Children are admitted free of charge until the end of the year and if you happened to have visited Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania in the las...t few weeks you will have been given a Ticket of Leave which allows you free site entry at the Cascades Female Factory and Coal Mines Historic Site! Call the site on 1800 139 478 or visit our website to book a tour with us. Thanks @photo_jennics for this great image! Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites

10.01.2022 August is National Family History Month! To mark this time of year we are introducing you to a series of convict women whose impact can still be felt today. The woman in this photo is Emma Blakey; owner of two businesses, mother of seven children, and pillar of her community in North East Tasmania. ... It’s difficult to imagine that this well-dressed, respectable looking woman was once described in the Leeds Intelligencer as a ‘light-fingered nymph’ responsible for the assault and robbery of a man in a ‘disreputable house’. That is, until you hear of the circumstances that led her there. By the tender age of 10 both of Emma’s parents had passed away, she was living with her two older sisters and was working at a flax mill to make ends meet. When she was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1849 she was 17 years old, had been ‘on the town’ for two years and was looking down the barrel of a 10 year convict sentence. Emma had a tough start to convict life and found herself serving time in Female Factories from Hobart to Ross, but her life took a turn in 1853 when she was assigned to a farming property and met John Lee, a fellow convict who would soon become her husband. Their convict story would have remained buried were it not for the work of Emma’s 4 x great granddaughter, Margaret. An avid family history researcher, Margaret has uncovered a trove of records that show Emma’s evolving narrative from a tough, poverty-stricken orphan to a no-nonsense, independent woman. Despite being described as ‘quite a harridan and very stern’ lady by those who knew her personally, Emma is fondly remembered by her family as someone determined to make sure her children and grandchildren had a good life and didn’t have to battle like she did. Once given their Certificate’s of Freedom Emma and John migrated to the town of Lefroy where they raised their children and opened ‘Mr Lee’s Coffee Palace’ and managed a temperance lodge. It is here that Emma was buried when she passed away in 1924, a whole 75 years after she first stepped foot in Tasmania. #nationalfamilyhistorymonth #mystory Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites

07.01.2022 Historic sites like the Cascades Female Factory rarely represent just one period in time. In fact, the Female Factory has had many lives and a few with their own grim storylines. Before the arrival of convicts, the land where the Female Factory now stands was home to the muwinina people, where they lived and cared for the land for thousands of years. In its 200 year colonial history, this place has been a rum distillery, a women’s prison, a boys reformatory, a hospital to tre...at infectious diseases, tennis courts, a paint shop and 10 years ago, a World Heritage-listed convict site. The picture below shows us a rather idyllic version of the Chapel well after it serviced the spiritual needs of our convict women. Do you have memories of the Female Factory before it was made into a historic site? We would love to hear them! #holidayherethisyear Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Photo credit: Alastair Bett

06.01.2022 Mother. Wife. Fortune teller. Thief. Aspiring whaler. A collection of words to describe Unity Rafferty, a convict woman sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing money. Unity had managed to eke out a living from telling fortunes with the help of her nine year old son, John. The two would go door to door, Unity pretending to be mute and deaf, and John on hand to translate her clairvoyant premonitions. That is until she was caught stealing six sovereigns from a you...ng servant seeking advice on the future of her love life. When police apprehended her, Unity happened to be sharing some gossip over a pint at a local pub, miraculously healed of her inability to hear or speak. Unity passed through the Cascades Female Factory in 1849 when she was sentenced to nine months hard labour for absconding. Well versed in the art of disguise, she had dressed herself in men’s clothing and attempted to join a whaling fleet at the Hobart docks, only to be recognised by a local constable and hauled in for punishment. Four years later Unity was at the docks again, this time with her new husband on their way to Victoria to start a new life. Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites #holidayherethisyear Photo credit: Alastair Bett

05.01.2022 Last week we told you a story about Isabella Renshaw, a convict given a free pardon for her role in capturing notorious bushranger, Henry Hunt. Another one of our team's favourite stories concerns Sarah Baker, a convict woman whose life did not take such a fortunate serendipitous turn. A tall 5’6 for her time, Sarah was described as having blue eyes, brown hair and a ‘sleepy, heavy look’ that seems at odds with her turbulent criminal past. ... When Sarah was 20 she arrived in Van Diemen’s Land to serve a life sentence for the murder of her partner, John Kelly. Not one to mince words, Sarah said of her crime, I lived with John 6 years, we had both been drunk, he struck me and I told him that if he struck me again I would knock his brains out. She followed through with her promise, striking John first with a fire poker, second with a shovel, and later with her heavy nailed shoe. During the 17 years she spent as a convict, Sarah served time at the Cascades Female Factory on 15 separate occasions for misdemeanors including being absent without leave, swearing, and even ‘arriving at the Depot in a state of beastly intoxication’. Sarah’s years of hard living eventually caught up with her and she passed away at the age of 42, leaving behind three daughters. Sarah Baker is one of six iconic characters depicted in our one-woman show, The Proud and the Punished, which will be performed four times throughout the week at midday beginning when we reopen the site on Friday 3 July. Go to our website or email [email protected] to reserve your spot! Photo credit: Alastair Bett Discover Tasmania Hobart & Beyond World Heritage Australian Convict Sites

04.01.2022 If you visit the Female Factory DO NOT miss this show!! We were so impressed and it really brought to life what a harsh and unjust environment this place was for our ancestors just 150 years ago. Thanks to @morestorieslessstuff who brought the whole family to the site recently and left this glowing review of one of our favourite shows, ‘The Proud and the Punished’. ...and just a little reminder to those who are yet to tick the Female Factory off their bucket list, ki...ds have free site entry until the end of the year. What a great way to give them a glimpse into the Hobart Town of yore! Discover Tasmania World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Hobart & Beyond

04.01.2022 An unbroken line of women In April 1832, two 13 year old girls stood in the Chester Pleas of Crownmote awaiting their punishment for the crime of stealing and fencing a watch. When their sentence of seven years transportation was read aloud, one of the girls cried out, ‘Oh! What a shame, seven years - seven years’, then turning to a nearby officer exclaimed, ‘You black-looking devil you, I'd pay you off for this if I could; if I could get to you I would scratch your eyes ou...t.’ The girl who uttered these fiery words was Catherine Cunningham, the great, great, great grandmother of Hobart local, Jo, and this week’s focus of our National Family History Month series. Fair and freckled, standing at only 4’9, with reddish hair and a small mouth, nose and chin, Catherine’s diminutive physical description belies the huge impact she would have on the many limbs of her family tree. After four years in Van Diemen’s Land and seven sentences at the Cascades Female Factory, Catherine fell pregnant and married the father of her baby, Lewis Lyons; and so began their legacy. Their descendants today are spread across Australia and live as far away as the United States. There are lawyers, politicians, builders, bootmakers, mothers, fathers, office workers, and so much more. Of Catherine’s legacy, Jo says ‘I know that spirit she displayed the day of her conviction as a teenager in 1832 lives on today in 2020 in some of her descendants who display that reactionary grit and toughness. I can only imagine such a characteristic helped her not give up in the solitary cells of the Female Factory where she was returned from her service in apparent shame for misdeeds that perhaps she committed, or perhaps were a handy accusation. During COVID-19 isolation my daughter and I walked up and down the rivulet track to the Female Factory several times. Without fail - when walking there I think of Catherine, the same age as my daughter is now when convicted, and our unbroken maternal link to the young Catherine and the Female Factory.' Do you have convict ancestry? We would love to hear your story, tell us with the hashtag #mystory Image: view of Cascades Female Factory, including the area where the rivulet track now stands and Catherine's descendant's walk. Attributed to Robert Proctor Beauchamp, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office. #nationalfamilyhistorymonth World Heritage Australian Convict Sites Hobart & Beyond Discover Tasmania

01.01.2022 We have had a blast over the past week taking some of our littlest visitors through our school holiday activities. They have been getting to know some of our most notorious convict characters by recreating them in peg doll form, followed by writing, signing and sealing nineteenth century style letters and drawings, ready to be posted to friends and family all across the country. We are back at 10 o’clock tomorrow for more activities, see you then!