Female Factories
Mar. 25th, 2008 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithBefore I do the final bit on Ross, a slight detour that I thought I could avoid doing but it seems simpler to pull this into one post.
Until recently, most focus on Australia's convict past dealt with the men. The women and children rarely get mentioned. Into the 1980s even, it just wasn't talked about. In the late 1990s, I was list-mum for the relevant Rootsweb genealogy mailing list, and the idea of women and children being transported was still little known. In the last decade, this has changed. The associated sites are better known, in some cases they've been developed for visitors and more research has been done and written about female convicts.
The reasons for this are, I think, more complicated than a simple women's history being overlooked as usual. When it comes to convict heritage, Port Arthur is the premier site. It's been a tourist attraction pretty much since the late 19th century, it's big, it's dramatic and it's been heavily promoted to the extent that many people believe it's the be all and end all of transportation. You got shoved on a ship and a few months later, found yourself in Port Arthur. (We do know better, yes? I don't have to clarify?) The settlement in Macquarie Harbour, even though there's not much there now, is also nice and dramatic.
There's also the issue of how women are generally portrayed. Boys will be boys, they get into trouble, they sew their wild oats, they go off and become outlaws, and this is generally acceptable especially a few decades down the track. It makes for good drama & good stories. Women, of course, are supposed to be well behaved. Nice women don't do Those Sort of Things, like going out to do menial work to earn a living. And then there are the Issues that get turned up when you start poking around in these places, but we don't talk about That Sort of Thing. All better of ignored, I'm sure.
The women's prisons were called factories. It was to these that new arrivals went prior to being assigned out to employers, they'd return here for punishment or when they got pregnant, and their children would stay here until they were old enough for the orphanage. The incarcerated women were put to work, at Cascades I believe they made blankets, hence the name Factories.
There were factories in Hobart, Launceston, Ross and George Town. I don't know anything about the one at George Town, other than it was only in use for a short while, prior to the Launceston one being opened. In Launceston, the women's prison was part of the city gaol site, which is now Launceston College. There's a well remaining, part of the sandstone wall and the bricks have been incorporated into various parts of the newer buildings. (I went to school here in the 1980s -- matric was the last two years of high school -- and the well was known to be left over "from the prison that used to be on the site" and that was it.)
In Hobart, there was a temporary one associated with the city goal (cnr Murray & Macquarie Sts, long ago demolished and built over) and the big site at Cascades, of which just a yard remains, with an adjoining memorial garden. I have some photos of these on my badly out of date web site.
In Ross, it is now a sheep paddock. Which means that, unlike the city sites, it was not built over. The significance of that from an archaeological point of view is hopefully obvious.
Now guess where we're going in the next post?
Until recently, most focus on Australia's convict past dealt with the men. The women and children rarely get mentioned. Into the 1980s even, it just wasn't talked about. In the late 1990s, I was list-mum for the relevant Rootsweb genealogy mailing list, and the idea of women and children being transported was still little known. In the last decade, this has changed. The associated sites are better known, in some cases they've been developed for visitors and more research has been done and written about female convicts.
The reasons for this are, I think, more complicated than a simple women's history being overlooked as usual. When it comes to convict heritage, Port Arthur is the premier site. It's been a tourist attraction pretty much since the late 19th century, it's big, it's dramatic and it's been heavily promoted to the extent that many people believe it's the be all and end all of transportation. You got shoved on a ship and a few months later, found yourself in Port Arthur. (We do know better, yes? I don't have to clarify?) The settlement in Macquarie Harbour, even though there's not much there now, is also nice and dramatic.
There's also the issue of how women are generally portrayed. Boys will be boys, they get into trouble, they sew their wild oats, they go off and become outlaws, and this is generally acceptable especially a few decades down the track. It makes for good drama & good stories. Women, of course, are supposed to be well behaved. Nice women don't do Those Sort of Things, like going out to do menial work to earn a living. And then there are the Issues that get turned up when you start poking around in these places, but we don't talk about That Sort of Thing. All better of ignored, I'm sure.
The women's prisons were called factories. It was to these that new arrivals went prior to being assigned out to employers, they'd return here for punishment or when they got pregnant, and their children would stay here until they were old enough for the orphanage. The incarcerated women were put to work, at Cascades I believe they made blankets, hence the name Factories.
There were factories in Hobart, Launceston, Ross and George Town. I don't know anything about the one at George Town, other than it was only in use for a short while, prior to the Launceston one being opened. In Launceston, the women's prison was part of the city gaol site, which is now Launceston College. There's a well remaining, part of the sandstone wall and the bricks have been incorporated into various parts of the newer buildings. (I went to school here in the 1980s -- matric was the last two years of high school -- and the well was known to be left over "from the prison that used to be on the site" and that was it.)
In Hobart, there was a temporary one associated with the city goal (cnr Murray & Macquarie Sts, long ago demolished and built over) and the big site at Cascades, of which just a yard remains, with an adjoining memorial garden. I have some photos of these on my badly out of date web site.
In Ross, it is now a sheep paddock. Which means that, unlike the city sites, it was not built over. The significance of that from an archaeological point of view is hopefully obvious.
Now guess where we're going in the next post?
