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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.

Coal Mines Historic Site

The Coal Mines Historic Site is an outstanding example of the 19th-century European global strategy of using the forced labour of convicts.

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Convict Lives at the Cascades Female Factory Vol.2 was launched by Her Excellency the Hon. Kate Warner AC Governor of Tasmania. Written by members of our Female Convict Research Centre and edited by Alison Alexander and Meredith Hodgson. #convicthistory #discovertasmania @cascadesfemalefactory

Footsteps Towards Freedom by the Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie is a stark reminder of what it must have been like for the convict women landed on the shores of Van Diemen’s Land. "Today we are recalling another specific group of women who were transported from Ireland and Britain as punishment, victims of a harsh judicial system that valued property above people’s lives. The crimes for which they were transported were often petty. The theft of food or a few coins, a watch or a shawl, stolen to try and sustain a starving family; desperate acts of destitute individuals. Among them were the 25,000 women, nearly half of them Irish, transported in the dark holds of ships on a 16,000-mile journey to what for them was the other end of the Earth. These Mná Díbeartha, Banished Women, left their homeland in the most desperate of circumstance. Thirteen thousand of them arrived on the shores of Van Diemen’s Land alone, or with small children in tow, facing an unknown country and unknown future, with little hope of ever seeing their families and native island again. Rowan’s sculptures have their companion pieces in Dublin and Toronto. Unveiled on the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine, in his Dublin sculptures Rowan gave a face to the suffering of the many starving people who departed in ships from their homeland...Here in Hobart, commemorating the 170th anniversary of that dark time, Rowan did not need to imagine the women who were forced to make the perilous voyage. For he could meet them. I was particularly moved to learn that the models for Rowan’s sculptures are the descendants of some of these banished women, some of whom are with us here today. ... We should never forget those who did not survive to mother a new generation; many did not survive the arduous voyage; many others who did were broken by abuse and the troubles they encountered and by the cruelties and humiliations imposed upon them. We now have the means to remember them too and to recall their suffering and sacrifice." Speech by Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, at the Unveiling of the ‘Footsteps’ statues in Hobart Image by Rodney Atkins Thick stone walls, the perimeter of the Female Factory. Image @julieannwain #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites A moment of reflection in the courtyard sunshine with @swaticlicks #convicts #convictism #gardens #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites @jessbarratt3 shared this after taking part in the Her Story performance “it is well worth doing, it moved me to tears to hear what the women endured” #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites Cell and yard interpretation in Yard 1 at the Cascades Female Factory. Painting the picture of what life was like for female convicts and a reminder that many women were coming from tough lives, living in poverty without good food or medical attention. Thanks @birrellidesign for sharing #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites Yard 4 at the Female Factory provides insight into the original buildings that would have been part of the women’s prison. Image @loraintas1612 #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites Female convicts were separated into class and yards within the factory walls based on their crimes and reason for transportation. The women spent their time at the factory working towards moving up in class. One place was the Crime Class Yard as @ulmicka shared with us. #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites #blackandwhite view of Yard 1 by @riffchan525 #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites @thekidbucketlist enjoying the “Her Story” performance which can be seen daily at 12pm at the Cascades Female Factory. #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites #livedrama Did you know the female convicts that were transported to Tasmania were forced to disembark ships at Hobart’s port at 4am and make their way in the middle of the night to their prison at the Cascades Female Factory away from the eyes of the settlement. We so often talk of Port Arthur and the male convicts that were transported to Van Diemen’s Land however the female convict story is often left untold. A visit to the Cascades Female Factory in South Hobart reminds us of the conditions the women and their children faced in the prison come factory which operated in the 1800’s. We do suggest you leave a little later than the convict women did, the site is open daily from 9:30am-4pm. Thanks @ulmicka1 for capturing this image of the laundry in the nursery yard. #discovertasmania #seeaustralia #hobartandbeyond #australianconvictsites #nursery #femaleconvicts A winter morning thanks to @hobartwalkingtours #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites #sunshine #mountain The view as captured by @christinahenri from outside the female factory. This is the view female convicts would have had as they arrived after their journey. #convicts #convictism #interpretation #heritage #hobartandbeyond #discovertasmania #australianconvictsites #theirview

Port Arthur Historic Site

Cascades Female Factory

Coal Mines Historic Site