26 – Convicts and Cascades Pt 1

We’re going to look at the female convicts who passed through the Cascades Female Factory, in Hobart, Tasmania, and reflect on the different experience the women convicts may have had, to those of the male convicts.

There are both harrowing and hilarious stories to be told about the institution and it’s inmates.  So we’ll focus on the women in that institution in particular, as an example of experiences that might have been familiar to most convict women who were sent out to Australia.   (54 mins)



Tasmanian Aboriginal (Tas Museum)
Cascades yards (2019)
Cascades yards (2019)
Cascades yards (Heritage Report)
Cascades yards 1892 (State Lib Tas)
Yard 1 (Tasmanian Heritage Council-Christopher Downes)
Yard 2 (Tasmanian Heritage Council-Christopher Downes)
Trugannini 1866
Matron Mary Hutchinson
Female-Factory-1892  (FemaleFactoryOrg)
Tasmanian convict records (Tas SL)
Separate apartments (FemaleFactory.org)
Yard 3 (Tasmanian Heritage Council)
Yard 4 (Tasmanian Heritage Council-Christopher Downes)
Cascades yards (2019)

No Podcast recommendation this episode.


Ep 26 References

Alexander, A. (2010). Tasmania’s convicts : how felons built a free society. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin.

Alexander, A. (Ed.) (2016). Repression, reform & resilience: A history of the Cascades Female Factory. Hobart: Convict Womens Press Inc.

Pack of Thieves? 52 Female Factory lives. (2014). Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority.

Frost, L., & Female Convicts Research Centre (Eds.). (2012). Convict lives: Women at Cascades Female Factory (2nd ed.). Hobart: Convict Women’s Press.

Daniels, K. (1993). The flash mob: Rebellion, rough culture and sexuality in the female factories of Van Diemen’s Land. Australian Feminist Studies, 8(18), 133-150.

Cascades Female Factory.   Retrieved from https://femalefactory.org.au/

The Female Factory Online.   Retrieved from https://femalefactoryonline.org/

Cascades Female Factory Historic Site Visitor Guide. Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (Ed.).  (2012).

Female Convict Research Centre.   Retrieved from www.femaleconvicts.org.au

Tasmanian Heritage Council. (2007a). Cascades Female Factory : South Hobart (Online) Retrieved from Libraries Tasmania: https://stors.tas.gov.au/au-7-0095-00596

Tasmanian Heritage Council. (2007b). Proposed Amendment to the Tasmanian Heritage Register entry for the Cascades Female Factory South Hobart: INFORMATION PACKAGE 27 November 2007. Retrieved from Hobart, Tasmania: https://web.archive.org/web/20110312210253/http://www.heritage.tas.gov.au/media/pdf/Cascades%20datasheet%2027Nov07%20-%20public%20release.pdf

The companion to Tasmanian history: Hobart. (2006).   Retrieved from https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/H/Hobart.htm

Hunt, D. (2013). Girt. Volume 1, From megafauna to Macquarie : the unauthorised history of Australia.  Collingwood, Vic.: Black Inc.

National Gallery of Australia: The Rajah Quilt 1841. (2019).   Retrieved from https://nga.gov.au/rajahquilt/

Daniels, K. (1998). Convict women. St Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Elizabeth Fry (Wikipedia).   Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Fry

History of Hobart (Wikipedia).   Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hobart

Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct.   Retrieved from http://www.parragirls.org.au/

Summers, A. (2002). Damned whores and God’s police (2nd revised ed.). Camberwell, Victoria: Penguin Books.

Bernard, Simon. (2019)   James Hardy Vaux’s 1819 dictionary of criminal slang : and other impolite terms as used by the convicts of the British colonies of Australia.  Melbourne, Vic:  Text Publishing.

Decoding Australia’s first dictionary on Late Night Live RN (ABC)

Music:

“The Female Factory / Convict Maid” : Battlers Ballad  –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSZB-52gdgk

“Female Transport”: Bush Gothic with The Lonely String Quartet – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnwVdOZk5Nk