On a stunningly beautiful autumn day in Hobart I visited an extraordinary historic precinct that, in the past, I had walked by not wanting to be pulled down emotionally by the memories of appalling circumstances inside. I knew this site had been the unwanted residence of thousands of female convicts that the British government had despatched from the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. Typically these women were given 7 year or life sentences in the fledgling Van Diemens Land (later renamed Tasmania and now often referred to by its first nation’s people’s name of lutruwita) for crimes such as the theft of a handkerchief or a loaf of bread. They endured 6 months at sea on poxy ships before being offloaded like cattle on the wharves of Hobart Town and sent to one of, what were then known as, the female prisons, later referred to as Female Factories.
The Hobart based Female Factory is a place of global significance and listed as one of the 11 sites that together form the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property.
The site has been recognised by UNESCO since 2010. I suspect this recognition is the reason why the site is much visited. I was particularly surprised by the number of people who arrived for audio or self-guided tours, and the numbers who registered to learn from a trained and experienced guide. I took a guided tour and it was sensational – both the quality of the content and the delivery of the information were impressive.
There is little but story left at the site. The refurbishment of the site and erection of a state of the art visitor centre has been cleverly designed. Some of the original external sandstone walls remain but where they are absent, gabion walls have been constructed – their cages filled with sandstone rocks as a reminder the walls were once solid, thick and impenetrable.
Within the original ‘yards’ dividing walls were constructed of red brick and the gabion cages contain broken red ex-convict bricks.
Elsewhere the walls of cells and various rooms are marked either by tiles laid flat and lined along the ground, or by rows of broken lumps of dolerite rock.
During the tour we were encouraged to stand inside the ‘walls’ of the solitary confinement cells, some of which were too small for anyone over five foot tall to lie down. As appalling as these were, apparently the women could remain rebellious and stamp their feet in such a way as to be heard; they showed unity and their rythym infuriated their gaolers. All testimony to how you cannot kill the spirits of many women, however barbaric the treatment. Presumably their daily ration of a smidgin of stale bread was reduced even further.
Babies were removed from mothers not long after birth and left in a starkly cold nursery with minimal care. Icy water flowed down from the mountain and there was no provision for heating the water or the rooms. The mortality rate was 70%.
Enquiries were made at the time to determine why this was so. At one stage firewood for fireplaces was funded but the money and wood went missing. In the area designated for the nursery a couple of rusted iron ‘cots’ have been sculptured to remind visitors of life (and loss) in the Female Factory for much of the 19th century.
Elsewhere a rusted wash-trough alerts visitors to the washing area – where recalcitrant women were forced to wash the military and constabulary uniforms and those of free people in cold water. Such occasional sculptural symbols marking areas of activity were simple and clear.
The gaol was managed by a Matron who had her own house in the precinct. She worked to a misogynist Governor of Tasmania so I imagine she wasn’t a load of fun.
I tried to feel the sense of oppression the women and young girls (the British government would send young girls off for life sentences as well) must have felt. The prison was built in the coldest, dampest part of Hobart with high sandstone walls over which there could be no escape. I was fortunate to visit on a cloudless gorgeous day and without all the constrictive inner walls in place, many of which would have cast gloomy shadows even if a woman was walking in the open air. The experience was challenging but a reminder of the lack of progress in history. Australia, taking up Britain’s earlier practice of sending off unwanted people, continues to routinely imprison potential refugees, who escape from regimes and arrive by boats from Asia, onto specific Pacific Islands into dedicated prisons with no hope of ever being allowed to leave and settle in Australia. Children are amongst these people. So I looked at my Female Factory visit with a broader lens.
Across the site, in unexpected places, a cut fresh flower rested on the ground. Poignant. Vale. Unfortunately most of these women never did fare well. More information can be read on the Female Factory’s website here.
Tasmanian Discoveries 