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Cascades Female Factory Historic Site aims to foster a greater understanding and appreciation for the largely untold story of female convicts sent to Australia. Cascades Female Factory Historic Site is the most significant site associated with female convicts in Australia, it is listed as one of the 11 sites that together form the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property, inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2010.

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16 Degraves St
South Hobart
Tasmania 7004
Australia

Phone: 1800 139 478

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Port Arthur Historic Site

Port Arthur Historic Site is a special place of vivid history, cultural heritage and stories so compelling, you’ll want to hear them again and again. It’s a place of global significance.

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Cascades Female Factory

Cascades Female Factory Historic Site aims to foster a greater understanding and appreciation for the largely untold story of female convicts sent to Australia.

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We are delighted to tell our followers that we have a new dramatized tour launching at the Cascades Female Factory! The Proud and the Punished’ is a one-woman show that centres on Sarah Mason, a petty criminal who is both embattled by the grisly system of punishment found inside the Female Factory walls and empowered to rail against it. Sarah represents the shared experience of convict women across Australia who were not only able to survive, but rise above the hardships thrown at them. ‘The Proud and the Punished’ will be offered Tuesday - Friday at 2:30pm. Bookings may be made online at www.femalefactory.org.au or by phoning 1800 139 478. Stay tuned for more details. @cascadesfemalefactory

How would you describe yourself? How would others describe you? Is a woman best described by her physical characteristics or by her character and skills? On this International Women's Day it's important to reflect on how we describe ourselves and how, more often, we are described by others. Thanks to @birrellidesign for sharing this image of Yard 1. As convict women arrived off the ships in Hobart Town, they were walked through the streets up to the Female Factory. It was here in Yard 1 that they were described by their male wardens according to their appearance, temperament and crime class. Over time, through hard work and strength of character, many women were able to not only survive, but to rise above this hardship. They were the women who went on to be the founding mothers and entrepreneurs of this new land. #hobartandbeyond #internationalwomensday #worldheritage Dramatic skies added to the eerie feeling at the Cascades Female Factory last week as fires burned in Tasmania's wilderness World Heritage Area and the smoke crept over kunanyi/Mount Wellington - #cascadesfemalefactory #hobartandbeyond #femaleconvicts #discovertasmania #bushfires #worldheritagearea #eeriesky #nofilter Open House Hobart is on! Come along and see the results of the Cascades Female Factory History and Interpretation Centre design competition, presented by the @thefindlayproject Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority and @oh_hobart This design competition has attracted entries from around the world, with some amazing visions for the World Heritage-listed Cascades Female Factory Historic Site. Presented in the Bond Store basement at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery👌 - Where - Bond Store, @tasmuseum When - 10am-4pm today until Sunday18 November How Much – FREE! - Photo credits: @brady.michaels / @al_bett #australianconvictsites #openhousehobart2018 #hobartandbeyond #cascadesfemalefactory @pespedis recently took a trip to the Cascades Female Factory and shared this photo of some of our poncho-adorned visitors experiencing Her Story, our daily live show. “History is powerful. History is important”. Thanks for sharing @pespedis, we couldn’t agree more. #femalefactory #cascadesfemalefactory #womensstories #australianconvictsites #worldheritagesite #hobart “A mere 1 km from our front door, today we explored the history within the walls that we’ve walked past so many times, the @cascadesfemalefactory. Kids are lining up for solitary confinement.” • Thanks @elisejeffery for sharing your visit with us! #cascadesfemalefactory #australianconvictsites #hiddengem #convictwomen #hobart #familyhistory Old stories and new perspectives in Yard Four. Photo shared by @duediew. #cascadesfemalefactory #convictwomen #australianconvictsites #kunanyi #sandstonewall #hobart #vandiemensland Spring has sprung in our commemorative garden making it a glorious spot to tell stories about our convict women this morning. #cascadesfemalefactory #australianconvictsites #worldheritagesite #springhassprung #convictwomen Meet Mary Wilkes. She is one of our 52 Pack of Thieves who was sentenced to transportation for life for committing highway robbery. From the very beginning of her sentence Mary proved herself to be a headache for the strict convict system and by the time she gained her freedom she had reoffended a further 20 times. Assault, swearing, drunkenness and insolence were the items recorded on her rap sheet, but one of her most notorious crimes was absconding with a runaway convict, disguising herself in men’s clothing, and hiding in the Tasmanian bush for five months before she was finally found. Refractory though she may have been, she was certainly resourceful. If only these walls could talk... #femaleconvicts #australianconvictsites #worldheritagesite #cascadesfemalefactory #sandstone #herstory #ourstories In this day and age there are many means of transport to the Cascades Female Factory, but one of our favourites is via the Hobart Rivulet, the city’s main water source until the 1860s. The track that borders the rivulet is a gentle, 40 minute walk upstream that takes you from the center of the city right to the foot of the Female Factory. At this time of year you will share the path with blossoming wattle and you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of South Hobart’s most notorious inhabitant, the platypus - swipe across to see a short video one of our guides took of it recently. “Scar back right leg, mole on upper lip, has been bled both arms”, so reads one of the many transcriptions written on the walls of the entrance way to Yard One. This particular description refers to Catherine Ennis, a convict who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1849 for seven years for stealing a fiddle. These written descriptions of convicts help us to paint a vivid picture of not only what they looked like, but also how they behaved, what skills they had, what religion they practised, even how heavily tattooed they were! As for Catherine, she was married in 1854 and Free by Servitude by 1856 and soon disappears from the written record… Another chilly morning here, another beautiful view of Mt Wellington-Kunanyi, another opportunity to share the stories of the women of the Cascades Female Factory... #australianconvictsites #familyhistory #worldheritagesite #hobart #tasmania #kunanyimountwellington

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