Chapter 1 - Welcome to Country
At the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site we acknowledge the muwinina people, the traditional owners of the Land upon which we work, and we pay our respect to Aboriginal Elders past and present. We respect all Tasmanian Aboriginal people, their culture and their rights as the first peoples of lutruwita. We recognise and value Aboriginal histories, knowledge and lived experiences and commit to being culturally inclusive and respectful in our working relationships with all Aboriginal people.
Chapter 2 - Introduction
The Cascades Female Factory Historic Site is one of 11 convict sites that together form the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property. Each of the 11 sites was selected as an excellent representation of one or more aspects of the forced migration of convicts. Together they tell the story of the more than 165,000 men, women and children who were transported as convicts to Australia.Five of the 11 sites are found within Tasmania: Cascades Female Factory Historic Site, South Hobart (1828–1856) Port Arthur Historic Site, Port Arthur (1830–1877) Coal Mines Historic Site, Norfolk Bay (1833–1848) Darlington Probation Station, Maria Island National Park (1825–1832 and 1842–1850) Brickendon and Woolmers Estates, Longford (1820–1850s)The other sites are spread across the rest of Australia: Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, New South Wales (1819–1848) Old Great North Road, Wisemans Ferry, New South Wales (1828–1835) Old Government House and Domain, Parramatta Park, New South Wales (1788–1856) Cockatoo Island Convict Site, Sydney, New South Wales (1839–1869) Fremantle Prison, Fremantle, Western Australia (1852–1886) Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area, Norfolk Island (1788–1814 and 1824–1855)
Chapter 3 - Yard One
You are in what is known as Yard One.See those high walls?They were originally part of a distillery. The distillery failed and the site was put up for sale. Lieutenant Governor George Arthur on behalf of the Colonial Government purchased the site as a solution to a growing problem at the Female House of Correction in Hobart Town.The Hobart Town establishment was facing harsh criticism in the press for its overcrowding, poor conditions and treatment of women convicts. The Colonial Government pressured Arthur to do something as quickly and cost effectively as possible.The pre-existing high walls and location of the distillery made it a very appealing site to Arthur. He ignored the damp and dark conditions and warnings from others about the less than desirable environment – building such an establishment in the shade of the mountain, by a rivulet known for flooding, didn’t seem like the best plan.But Arthur needed a solution. And so, this site was bought for the new Cascades Female Factory.This Yard was split into several smaller yards, creating a very confined space. It can be difficult to imagine the walls within walls and the labyrinth of buildings that once filled Yard One.Take a look on the ground and you will notice steel strips. These lines represent a wall or structure that once existed in the Yard. It helps gives a sense of just how confined this space would have been back in 1828 when it was converted and opened as the Cascades Female Factory.The Yard was designed to reflect advice given by English prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, who advocated for more humane treatment of female convicts. Her suggestion of the class system is evident in this first Yard. This system saw the separation of the convicts into three distinct classes so the worst behaved would not influence the better-behaved women.Yard One was divided into the following sections: Third Class or Crime Class Yard for severe punishment of the worst behaved convicts Second Class Yard for women undergoing milder punishments First Class or Assignable Class Yard for the best behaved women, where they waited to be assigned as servants Nursery Yard Kitchen, and Hospital.There was also a Chapel and the Superintendent’s residence in this Yard, as well as solitary cells and storerooms.Elizabeth Fry had also recommended that female convicts have their own, separate, sleeping areas. A lack of space and money did not allow this and instead, women were locked into large dormitory rooms. The dormitory was a two-storey building in the middle of the yard, with four rooms on each floor, no windows and poor ventilation. The women were locked into these rooms at night, according to their class.Let’s take a closer look at who these women were, the convicts who soon overcrowded this Yard.
Chapter 4 - Arrival
On board each convict transport ship was a Surgeon Superintendent who was responsible for the welfare of the convicts, and who wrote a report on the behaviour of each woman during the voyage.A report such as “good” or “quiet and hardworking” was likely to work in a convict’s favour on arrival in the colony.But sometimes the surgeon was more creative in his descriptions:Elizabeth Peck, age 19 was “idle, noisy, without any known good points”Ann Guthrie, age 20 was “slovenly, quarrelsome, smokes and swears”Ann Norton, age 30 was “a dirty creature of weak intellect”Ann Walbern, age 41 was “deceitful, but orderly”.
Chapter 5 - Assignment System
“…there are places in which even the best conducted women will not remain; from severe treatment, neglect of food & clothing. In some places the children are allowed to abuse them.”-Superintendent John Hutchinson - Inquiry into Female Convict Discipline, 1841.
Chapter 6 - The Superintendent and the Matron
“The Superintendent - he is intrusted with the immediate management of the establishment, under the directions of the principal superintendent of convicts, and held responsible for the safe custody of the women, and for the strict observance of the rules and regulations for the house of correction.”“The matron shall superintend such part of the employment of the women as falls within the province of a female, and shall attend to such matters as could not be properly performed by the superintendent, and shall generally assist him in the care and control of the establishment.”Hobart Town Courier, 10 October 1829.
Chapter 7 - Third Class Yard
Elizabeth Harris was sentenced to time in one of these solitary cells on 6 separate occasions between 1829 and 1832, and in total spent 43 days locked up on a diet of bread and water. Most of the time it was for being absent without leave, absconding, or drunkenness. One of the sentences was rescinded after her Mistress vouched for her, and Elizabeth narrowly avoided an extra 10 days in the cells, instead being returned to her Mistress’s service.Elizabeth was a 22-year-old mother of 3, listed as a dress and staymaker and only 4'2" tall, when she was convicted of stealing a plaid cloak. She was from Boston, Massachusetts, and claimed her father was the master of a trade vessel plying between Boston and Liverpool. Tried in Liverpool for her crime, Elizabeth had two prior offences for stealing, and was consequently sentenced to transportation for 7 years. Her gaol report was unfavourable, stating “twice in prison before, not very orderly”.The voyage to Van Diemen’s Land aboard the Borneo was eventful for Elizabeth, who ended up on the sick list for 11 days after being “pitched over the wash tub by a roll of the ship" injuring her lower back at the washtubs on board and on the same day “exposed to wet and cold while washing her clothes on deck”.Elizabeth was one of very few convicts to experience a particularly cruel type of punishment, rarely used at the Cascades Female Factory. The Iron Collar, which was rarely used by this time and was completely abolished by 1834, was a heavy band of iron placed around the woman’s neck and left on for a period of 7 or 14 days, or up to one month maximum. Elizabeth was sentenced “to wear an Iron Collar and to be fed on bread and water only until she peaceably and quietly returns to her work” after she was convicted within the Factory of “Neglect of Duty in not doing the work & disobedience of Mr & Mrs Pullens orders in refusing to go her work also with using insolent & profane Language”. At the time she was already serving a sentence of 2 months in Crime Class for being absent without leave from her assignment.Elizabeth is last recorded as being at the Factory in 1833, where she was awaiting assignment. At the time she had been granted permission to marry a free settler by the name of Angus Ferguson, though there is no record of the actual marriage taking place. Elizabeth received her full Certificate of Freedom in 1835, and after that there is little evidence of what became of her.
Chapter 8 - Yard One Nursery
Margaret Lacey was 27 years old, married and a mother of one, when she was convicted of stealing a quilt and other items of clothing from an ex-employer, and sentenced to transportation for seven years. At her trial Margaret stated, “I had not broken my fast in three days, poverty drove me to it”.Margaret and her 19-month-old daughter Rebecca were loaded onto the convict transport William Bryan in 1833, leaving behind Margaret's husband, Samuel; she would never see him or their homeland again.When the William Bryan arrived in Hobart Town, Margaret was sent to work as an assigned servant for a Mrs Farmer, in Murray Street, while Rebecca would have been admitted to the Female Factory Nursery in Yard One. Margaret moved through different assignments and households, and began to amass colonial offences – twice she was sent to the Female Factory for punishment while her daughter was in the Nursery. But their close proximity would not have meant that they necessarily got to see each other; it is unlikely as Margaret was undergoing punishment.In 1834, Rebecca, aged 2, was admitted to the Orphan School in New Town. Less than a year later Margaret was returned to the Female Factory by her employer for “Being in a State of Pregnancy and totally incapable of doing any Work”.She gave birth to another little girl, named Mary, and would have been able to spend 6 months with her, before likely spending time at hard labour for having given birth to an illegitimate child.Margaret was then sent back out to work, and Mary, after surviving the nursery for 2 years and 6 months, was admitted to the Orphan School.Margaret continued to offend – being absent without leave, disobedient, and absconding.After marrying ex-convict William Warren in 1840, Margaret received her freedom in 1841. Yet her daughters, Rebecca and Mary, were not immediately recovered from the Orphan School by their mother and her new husband. Instead, in 1846 a now 14-year-old Rebecca was discharged and apprenticed to a Captain Addis in Geelong, while a year later Mary was released to her mother, only to then travel to her sister in Victoria.Margaret went on to give birth to 4 more children – 3 sons and a daughter. Little else is known about her life until her death in New Norfolk in 1873.
Chapter 9 - The Chapel and the Flash Mob
“In the Factory are found several women known by the name of the “Flash mob” who have always money, wear worked cap[?] silk handkerchiefs, earrings and other rings they are the greatest black guards in the building. The other women are afraid of them. They lead away the young girls by ill advice.”Testimony of Mary Haigh, per convict transport Arab
Chapter 10 - Trukanini
How is it that Trukanini came to be buried here in the Cascades Female Factory?Trukanini was a Nununi women from lunawunni, now called Bruny Island. She has become a renowned historical figure, having lived through the horrors of the Black War that took place throughout lutruwita/Tasmania, and one of the few to survive both Wybalenna and Oyster Cove Aboriginal internment camps.Her final years were spent in Hobart Town.Trukanini's distress at what happened to Aboriginal man, and her friend, William Lanney after his death caused her extreme angst for her own future (in death). William Lanney's body was mutilated by members of the Royal Society of Tasmania, and the eminent Doctor William Crowther (a man who later became Premier of Tasmania).On Trukanini's death in May 1876, the Royal Society immediately lobbied the Government for possesion of her body. Trukanini had stated her fierce opposition to any interference with her body, and she was clear as to how and where she wanted to be buried. Against Trukanini's express wishes, Tasmania's Executive Council directed she be interred in the Government cemetery in the Female Factory in Cascades.Here, within the high sandstone walls of the convict prison, she was protected from poachers or graverobbers - but not from science.To the eternal shame of the Royal Society, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Tasmanian Government of the day, Trukanini's worst fears became reality, and she suffered the most undignified treatment. After two more requests from the Royal Society, the Government gave their permission for Trukanini to be exumed in December of 1878.Her remains were transferred to the new Tasmanian Museum in 1885. In breach of the conditions placed on the Royal Society, and the museum, that Trukanini not be accessible to the public, by 1888 her skeleton was loaned for temporary display in the Melbourne Exhibition building. Later, the musuem had Trukanini's skeleton articulated for permanent display in their new wing featuring the Aboriginal collections. Here Trukanini became a prized centrepiece, displayed among cultural artefacts such as shell necklaces, baskets, stone tools, and portraits of her people.In this glass cabinet of curiosities she was trapped, wrongly labelled as "the last" of an "extinct race", from 1904 until 1947.It took until 1976 for the pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) community, to free Trukanini from the vaults of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. One hunded years after her death, the Tasmanian Aboriginal community were finally able to carry out her wishes, and Trukanini's remains were cremated and scattered deep in the d'Entrecasteaux Channel.We mark the place where Trukanini was initially interred, here in Yard One, with a symbol of her nununi ancestors - the tuylini (stringybark tree).
Chapter 11 - Yard Two
“I was pained to see so many very youthful creatures in this yard – delinquents in their earliest teens; debauched ere the pith had hardened in their little bones.”Colonel Godfrey Charles Mundy in Our Antipodes: or, Residence and Rambles in the Australian colonies. with a Glimpse of the Gold Fields
Chapter 12 - Probation System
Mary McCann spent 10 days in the cells for “disorderly conduct” on board the Anson Probation Station while serving her period of probation. Barely 2 weeks later she was in trouble again, this time for refusing to attend school. Mary was transferred to the Cascades Female Factory to serve her 6 months’ probation in a Separate Apartment in Yard Three.At 21 years old, Mary had been transported from Monaghan, Ireland for 7 years for stealing 2 geese. Her convict description lists her as 5'3" tall, with a fresh complexion, dark eyes, dark brown hair and a slightly freckled face. According to the surgeon on board the convict transport ship Australasia, Mary’s behaviour during the voyage was “good”.Although still under sentence Mary, got married only a year after arriving in Van Diemen’s Land, to an ex-convict by the name of John Wilson. With no further offences to her name, Mary received her Certificate of Freedom in 1854.
Chapter 13 - The Separate Apartments
On 15 April 1853, Mr Murdoch, overseer, charged Elizabeth Boatwright with singing in her Separate Apartment. Consequently, Elizabeth was put onto a diet of bread and water for three days.On 30 March 1854, the watchwoman charged Martha Dunn with "breach [of] regulations in looking through the bars of her apartment". For this, Martha was confined to her apartment for 7 days, not even allowed out for exercise.On 10 July 1851, Jane Pollard was sent before the Visiting Magistrate for “talking in the Separate Apartments”, and was sentenced to 10 days solitary confinement. Jane was sentenced to the apartments over and over again during her turbulent time in the convict system, and had her sentence of transportation extended for 12 months on 2 occasions.
Chapter 14 - Yard Three Staff
On 2 August 1853, needlework instructress Mrs Eleanor Hawson charged Mary Ann McDonald with “having tobacco". This was Mary Ann’s second charge by Mrs Hawson for the same offence in a short period; consequently Mary Ann was sentenced to 3 days solitary confinement and a month in the Separate Apartments.Mary Ann had been transported to Van Diemen’s Land for 10 years for “breaking into a dwelling house and stealing wearing apparel”. The 16 year old nursery girl and housemaid was 4'11" tall, could read and write, and was from St Giles, London.Mary Ann spent time at the Cascades Female Factory, the Ross Female Factory and the Brickfields Hiring Depot. Her list of offences includes absconding from the Brickfields twice, as well as “absent without leave”, “disobedience of orders”, “not getting up at the proper hour”, and “being out of her proper berth at night”.Mary Ann gave birth to a son, Joseph, here at Cascades in 1848, but he only survived to the age of 17 months before he died of “marasmus”, or malnutrition, at the Brickfields Nursery.With her freedom granted in 1853, Mary Ann would later marry an ex-convict, and have a further 7 children, all of whom lived much longer than her first – with her youngest daughter surviving until 1963.
Chapter 15 - Yard Four Nursery
On New Year’s Day 1851, Colonel Godfrey Charles Mundy visited the Cascades Female Factory, later describing what he saw in his book, Our Antipodes: or, Residence and Rambles in the Australian colonies. with a Glimpse of the Gold Fields.On visiting the new nursery in Yard Four he had many comments to make, remarking on the silence of the children, and how crowded they were. According to Mundy “there were a score or so of wooden cribs, in each of which lay two, three, or four innocents, stowed away head and tail, like sardines a l’huile”.
Chapter 16 - Mothers and Children
Mary McKay was 31 years old, a married mother of 2, when she was convicted of stealing wearing apparel and sentenced to 10 years transportation. The surgeon superintendent on the Angelina recorded the Scottish dressmaker's behaviour as “indifferent”, which may be unsurprising given she had to leave her husband, William, and her young family behind.Mary’s time in the convict system saw her in and out of the Cascades Female Factory repeatedly, both to be punished for colonial offences and to give birth to 4 more children.In May 1846, Mary was part way through serving a sentence of 4 months hard labour for being absent when her daughter, Mary Ann, was born. Mothers were usually given 6 months with their newborn infants to nurse and care for them, before being punished in Crime Class for daring to become pregnant while under sentence. In 1846 the nursery for children born to convicts was at Dynnryne House. At the time that Mary Ann was admitted it was so overcrowded with women and children that, according to the Comptroller General of Convicts, it was “not...possible to maintain order and cleanliness”. Despite the conditions, Mary Ann survived the nursery to the age of 2, when she was admitted to the Queen’s Orphan School in New Town.Shortly before Mary Ann left the nursery, her mother was back serving time doing hard labour at Cascades Female Factory and once again heavily pregnant. Mary McKay gave birth to a son, James, in May 1848. Sadly James was just 4 months old when he died at the Dynnryne Nursery from “marasmus” or malnutrition.One year later, Mary was following the same pattern once more – serving 6 months hard labour for “not proceeding to the depot according to her pass” and pregnant again. Her son, William Charles, was born in December 1849, and spent 9 months at Cascades in the new nursery here in Yard Four before contracting pneumonia and passing away.The hardships and loss were not yet over for Mary, who gave birth one final time to another son, also named William, at the Brickfields Hiring Depot in 1853. At just one year and one month old William was admitted to the Orphan School, but he only survived there for 2 months before dying of fever and marasmus.Mary McKay received her Certificate of Freedom in April 1855, 11 years after she had been transported. During this time she had borne 4 children and spent more than 18 months doing hard labour here at the Cascades Female Factory.Mary finally retrieved her only surviving child, her daughter, Mary Ann, from the Queen’s Orphan School in 1858. By this time Mary Ann was 12 years old and had spent her entire life in institutions. No further evidence has been found of their eventual fate.
Convict Women's Tour
From 1828 to 1856 approximately 7,000 convict women spent time at the Cascades Female Factory, each with their own story to tell. Over a period of 45 minutes, our guided tour gives visitors a comprehensive introduction to the site and the women who were imprisoned here. Offered several times each day, this tour will provide insights into the history of the Female Factory, the convict system of punishment and reform, and offer a glimpse of what convict life was like for the thousands of women transported to Van Diemen’s Land.The Convict Women’s Tour runs daily at 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:00pm, 2:00pm and 3:00pm.Tickets are available from the Welcome Desk in the Visitor Centre.
Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls - Storytelling Experience
This in-person storytelling experience takes visitors on an emotional journey through the stories of seven remarkable convict women who faced life’s hardships with resilience.These women were often underestimated, belittled and forgotten. Seen by society as ‘notorious strumpets’, but there was so much more to each and every woman.Through their lives learn about how female convicts were treated by society, and how they sometimes managed to overcome prejudice and inequality to succeed – despite all odds.
Chapter 17 - The Matron's Quarters
The Matron herself lived in the cottage you can see at the end of the Yard. The Matron’s Quarters is the only remaining original building on the site. It is very intriguing to see a domestic dwelling in place like this.The first Matron to live here was Charlotte McCullagh.Born in Ireland, she arrived in Hobart on 28 May 1851 on board the ship Blackfriar with her sister, Elizabeth. Charlotte took up her post as Matron less than a month later.It was an unprecedented move, appointing a single woman as Matron and the first time the roles of Matron and Superintendent had not been filled by a married couple.Elizabeth became Assistant Matron in December 1852 and it is believed she lived next door to her sister, in the Sub-matron’s cottage. This building was demolished within 20 years or so of it being built. Thankfully, archaeological excavation uncovered the original layout of the cottage. Wander through to get a sense of the size of this home, and its proximity to the convicts and the Matron. It was not unusual for staff of convict institutions to live on site but it must have felt that they too, like the convicts, were under constant surveillance.For some time historians speculated that the bay window of the cottage allowed the Matron to keep an eye on the women and children from her parlour room. However, Charlotte told an Inquiry that she had nothing to do with the children in the Nursery.
Chapter 18 - Yard Five
Superintendent John May implemented a new method of working at the Factory – taskwork was introduced to incentivise work for the women. Each convict had a quota to reach each day, and any work beyond that quota could earn her time off her sentence. Any able-bodied woman capable of producing work was included in this new system, even those locked in solitary confinement. The type of work was typically sewing, spinning wool, knitting, or working in the factory kitchens.
Chapter 19 - The Final Years
Elizabeth Bielby was one of the more than 200 convict women to arrive on the final female convict transport ship, the Duchess of Northumberland, in April 1853.Convicted of larceny for robbing her master of a sizeable £21, Elizabeth was sentenced to 10 years transportation. The surgeon on board the ship described 19-year-old Elizabeth as “good, very quiet”, and her record on arrival tells us she was 5'1" tall, a dairymaid, and could both read and write.Sent to work for Mrs Benjamin in Liverpool St, it was only a few months before Elizabeth was in trouble – sentenced to 18 months hard labour here at Cascades for “larceny under £5”.Elizabeth was again sentenced to the Female Factory the next year, this time for 9 months for being absent from muster.In April 1855, Elizabeth gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Harriet, here at the Female Factory. At just 16 months old, Harriet was sent to the Orphan School in New Town to await her mother’s freedom, but sadly the two were never to be reunited, as Harriet died of “inflammation of the lungs” just 2 months after her arrival there.After gaining her Ticket of Leave in 1856, Elizabeth married ex-convict John Murray Williams, and the pair went on to raise a family of 3 boys.Elizabeth survived her husband by 7 years, before dying in the charitable institutions here at Cascades in 1902.
Chapter 20 - Reflection
Cascades Female Factory is a very special place. People from across the globe are tied to this site through the themes it represents, the stories, families, histories.It is an important site to not only reflect on our past, but our shared future."I doubt there’s a woman in Australia who doesn’t have strong women forebears because surviving in a world that is so male dominated and where the power sits so differently takes either quiet endurance or enormous courage and strength.""We have learnt from them to be persistent and to be resilient.""If I had a chance to talk to Bridget, I’d really like to make her aware of the – so much good that’s come out of her life.""She did the best she could with what she had and we need to learn from those lessons, we need to make sure that today we have good health services including good mental health services, that we give a voice to women.""It’s very rare to find someone who had an easy time of it. But yet, we’ve come from that."
Visitor Information
The Visitor Centre is the central hub of the Cascades Female Factory, containing a number of facilities for visitors to use during their time on site.Ask our friendly staff at the welcome desk to book additional tours, help you find resources for your family history research, provide local tips for things to do and see in Hobart, or any other questions.
Family Activities
At the Cascades Female Factory we hold regular programs of school holiday activities for families to take part in during their visit to the Site, along with two onsite activities available year-round.See our friendly staff for more information on how to get involved.
Family History
While you're onsite, make sure you visit the Matron's Cottage to access resources which will help you in finding your family's story.Spend a little time searching the Female Convict Research Centre's incredible database of more than 13,000 transcribed female convict records.
