Female Factory

Precinct Timeline

1788 - Area explored& settled

1792 - Smith's 30 acre grant

1806 - Marsden acquires Smiths grant; Gov Bligh granted adjacent 105 acres

1816- 4 acres of Bligh's grant for Female Factory site

1818 - Female Factory Foundation stone laid

1821 - Female Factory occupied

1824 - Sleeping quarters for Female Factory 3rd class women built

1827 - Female Factory women riot, break out

1838 - Female Factory 3rd class penitentiary built

1839 - Sisters of Charity arrive at Female Factory

1840 - work starts on Roman Catholic Orphan School

1844 - Roman Catholic Orphan School occupied

1848 - Female Factory proclaimed a Lunatic Asylum

1859 - Sisters of the Good Samaritan take over Management Roman Catholic Orphan School

1886 - Orphan School vacated

1887 - Roman Catholic Orphan School site occupied as Girls Industrial School - first riot takes place

1961 - Hay Girls Institution est as Girls Industrial School / Parramatta Girls Home annex

1974 - Girls Industrial School / Parramatta Girls Home officially closes

1975 – Parramatta Girls Home renamed Kamballa & Taldree Children's Shelter

1980 - Norma Parker Detention Centre established in former GIS/PGH buildings

2003 - Parramatta Girls reunion

In April 1788 four months after the First Fleet anchored in Sydney Cove, Capt'n Arthur Phillip led and expedition up the Parramatta River in search of arable lands. Arriving at a point where a fresh water stream trickled across a platform of broad flat stones into the river, the party set up camp in the lee of a Crescent shaped beach on the river foreshores. From a gentle rise in the land above the river Phillip surveyed a lightly wooded landscape of open grasslands and it was here he decided to establish a gaol town and farm later to be known as Parramatta.

Prince Alfred Park

This historic park is the site of Australia’s first gaol which was completed in 1797. Two years later it was burnt down by inmates, and was replaced in 1804 by a two-storey stone structure. The upper floor of this stone building was used as the first female factory.

Female Factory

In 1818 Governor Lachlan Macquarie engaged Francis Greenway, a convict architect, to design a new building specifically for the female convicts. Built by a local firm of Isaac Payten and William Watkins, at a cost of £4,800.

On four acres of land on the north side of the River, it was an imposing sight. It was three storeys high in stone cut from the nearby quarry, and enclosed by a nine foot stone wall. There was to be Matron’s Quarters, a hospital, dining rooms, sleeping accommodation, kitchens and storerooms. The Factory was to accommodate 300 women, the wings for carding, spinning, weaving and looms and the hospital. The women moved into the Factory in 1821. There were three classes in the Factory:

1st class for those newly arrived, waiting for assignments or those returned to the Factory for various reasons, such as unsuitable for service or being pregnant.

2nd class for those from 3rd class for good behaviour, or promoted from 1st class for misconduct.

3rd class was the crime class, either for the original conviction, or a colonial conviction sentenced by the Court or magistrate. Punishment was Hard Labour, moving earth, breaking rocks etc. Also to have their head shaved rations cut, solitary confinement with bread and water and more.

In 1822 the factory produced 60,000 yards of cloth and took in the laundry for the military.

Female Factory clock

Once located in the central arch above the entrance to the main barrack building the original Female Factory clock was 1 of 5 clocks gifted to the colony by King George IV in 1822. Manufactured by Thwaite and Reed, Clerkenwell London, the clock was later moved to its present location in the north tower of Asylum Ward 1 around 1885. The clock was displayed as an insignia on items belonging to the Factory.

1826 Lady Darling formed a Ladies Committee, to teach the ‘better behaved’ inmates skills such as straw plaiting for bonnet making. This did not last long.

Matrons were often a problem and their records do not all survive, except in some Colonial secretary papers.

1827 Matron Fulloon was appointed, but when an inmate died of ‘hunger and harsh treatment, was removed and replaced by Matron Raine. Matron Ann Gordon was appointed in 1827, she was the highest paid woman in the colony at this time at £120 a year. Her manner was immortalised in the records, in the local newspapers, so, the recalcitrant women were sent to‘Gordon’s Seminary’, or to be ‘Gordonised’.

By 1828 the population in the Factory was 537. There were several riots in the Factory, and the leaders were sent to Port Macquarie. In 1830 there were 400 women incarcerated.

By 1837 there were 500 inside the walls. The Sisters of Charity began to visit in 1839 and convinced the authorities to build laundries and work rooms where they taught the inmates to read and write, to sew and give them skills for when they were sent out into the colony.

In 1847 The Factory was closed after 26 infamous years.

In 1848 it was reassigned as a Hospital for Lunatics and Invalids: An Asylum. The original Factory Entrance Gate and Building were demolished in 1880’s. Some of the stones were reused for the building now standing on the site, which has the original clock in the tower.

References:

Parramatta Correctional Centre its past development and future care.Kerr, J. DPCS, Sydney, 1995

Out of Sight, out of Mind -Australia's places of confinement, 1788-1988, Kerr, J. S.H. Ervin Gallery,Sydney, 1988

With Just but relentless discipline - a social history of Corrective Services in New South Wales, Ramsland, J. Kangaroo, Kenthurst, 1996

A Merciless Place - the story of Britain's convict disaster in Africa and how it led to the settlement of Australia. Christopher, E. Allen & Unwin 2010

Parramatta A Past Revealed. Terry Kass et al, Parramatta City Council, 1996

Women Transported, Life in Australia’s Convict Female Factories.