Along the Way – The Parramatta Female Factory Friends Journey
September 2024
Exciting News is expected in relation to inviting a submission for Listing
29 April 2024
13 September 2023 – Acceptance of the Tentative Listing Submission by UNESCO
25 August 2023 – Australia’s submission for Tentative Listing (the first step in the process)
29 November 2022
Parramatta Heritage Forum Update
On 17 November 2022, there was a joint announcement by Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for the Environment and Water and Andrew Charlton MP, Member for Parramatta was that the Australian Government is providing financial backing to support the Parramatta Female Factory’s World Heritage listing bid. Nearly $1 million will go towards the development of the World Heritage nomination for the Factory, which is an important site in Australia’s convict history.
This news comes five years since the Factory was included in the National Heritage List in recognition of its importance to our nation’s history. The Parramatta Female Factory is an example of Australia’s social welfare history. Although called a factory, it functioned essentially as a prison for convict women and their children.
Thousands of convict women passed through the Factory as the first institution established specifically for female prisoners in Australia. It was commissioned by Governor Lachlan Macquarie and designed by convict architect Francis Greenway.
It was the first purpose-built female factory in the early Colony.
It was also the first female hospital in the Colony and the first female factory in the British Empire.
The Factory manufactured cloth – linen, wool and linsey woolsey. It was also the site of the colony’s first manufactured export producing 60,000 yards (55,000 m) of woven cloth in 1822. It is a rare surviving example of what life was like in colonial Australia, with many of its original walls and buildings still in place. It’s one of only three factories of its type in Australia that hasn’t been completely demolished.
A World Heritage listing process takes time but if successful, would recognise and protect the site’s outstanding universal value. The announcement will allow important first steps to take place – the required expert assessment to support the case for its inclusion on Australia’s World Heritage list.
Recognition was given to the NSW Government who committed 54 million dollars to conservation and a business case for a new Museum of History within the Precinct. The conservation work undertaken thus far is world class and a showcase to Australia’s colonial past.
Quotes attributable to Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek:
“The Parramatta Female Factory has a long and often unhappy place in our colonial history.
“The Factory is an important site in the historic Parramatta heritage precinct.
“It showcases the long and evolving story of the institutionalisation of women and children, from the early eighteenth century through to the modern age which is an important story that is often untold both in Australia and internationally.
“The Parramatta Female Factory was a place of assignment, a hospital, a marriage bureau, a factory, an asylum and a prison for those who committed a crime in the Colony.
“As part of the Parramatta Heritage precinct, it is a rare and important surviving example of our built heritage. And of course, it’s a site of great importance to the local community.
“The funding I’ve announced as part of the Budget will start the ball rolling to make the important case for the Factory’s inclusion in the World Heritage List.”
Quotes attributable to Dr Andrew Charlton Federal Member for Parramatta:
“The Parramatta Female Factory is an important part of our community, and a crowning jewel in Parramatta’s heritage assets.
“It tells the story of the incarceration of women and children in Australia and for those with a connection to the many institutions that operated here, it is a site which still has many memories.
“The Factory also has a place in the history of workers’ rights in Australia – in 1827 it was potentially the site of Australia’s first industrial action, when women rioted in response to a cut in rations.
“The Factory is a perfect example of how the history of Parramatta is also the history of Australia itself.
“I’m committed to working with the New South Wales Government and the local community to push for its inclusion in the World Heritage List.”
The forum included various stakeholders of the National Heritage Precinct who gave presentations, and the consensus was that the entire National Heritage Site as defined in the National Heritage listing should be World Heritage listed, however, valid concerns were expressed on the NSW Government’s Westmead Strategy and the intended commercialisation of adjacent areas abutting the site would affect World Heritage Listing.
Closing remarks were made by Donna Davis – Lord Mayor of Parramatta
15 November 2022
URGENT UPDATE
Andrew Charlton MP The Federal Minister for Parramatta will be hosting a community forum on the future of Parramatta’s heritage and the Parramatta Female Factory.
Date: This Thursday 17th November 2022
Location: Riverside Theatre, Corner Church and Market Streets, Parramatta
Format: Community forum with an address by Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for the Environment and Water followed by 5-minute presentations
31 October 2022
WORLD HERITAGE LISTING – UPDATE
Andrew Charlton MP our Federal Member for Parramatta has been very proactive and it’s almost unbelievable that in last Tuesday’s Budget Papers that we read some absolutely fantastic news. The Commonwealth Government has set aside $14.7M dollars over 4 years from 2022 (shared with other important needs) to add the Parramatta Female Factory to the World Heritage Listing of Australian Convict Sites.
This is considering the constraints on budgets, is a major milestone in the path of the Parramatta Female Factory achieving World Heritage listing.
We have to acknowledge NSW Governmentt from last December’s $65 million in conservation work and a business plan for the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct and the development of a business case for a new Museum.
We know there is a process and we are continuing to work with NSW Government, particularly through the DPIE and SydneyLiving Museums (who will be known next year as Museums of History NSW) and assisting wherever we can in the development of our main strategic goal – World Heritage. To date we have had regular meetings with both and these have been positive and collaborative.
Let’s not forget, it has been 10 years to this point in time. The Parramatta Female Factory Friends, particularly those who were on the original committee, who first met at a Cafe in Parramatta, must feel a great deal of pride in what is currently being achieved.
Last Friday, Thomas Keneally, our Patron (as is @Meg Keneally) was able to launch our third book in the series – HerStory – Parramatta and Beyond and in his address, he discussed how important the Parramatta Female Factory is in this nation’s history.
There is much to be done and the current Committee are up for the task, however, we also need you – our dedicated members and followers to support us and we truly thank you for your ongoing support.
1 December 2021
On 1 December 2021, the following announcement was made by NSW Government:
$54m to secure future of Parramatta Female Factory and develop arts and cultural precinct
1 December 2021
The NSW Government has today announced a $53.8 million commitment to secure, restore and preserve the culture, heritage and future use of the Parramatta Female Factory precinct site in Western Sydney. The Female Factory was built to house female convicts in the colony.
Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said the significant funding showed the Government’s commitment to preserving the state’s rich history.
“This is a landmark moment in our state’s history. The Parramatta Female Factory is an extraordinary site, a place of Aboriginal and colonial culture and heritage significance. It is a site of living history and memory for many people, particularly those with connections to the many institutions that operated here,” Mr Ayres said.
“There is something very special about respectful repurposing of restored heritage buildings to launch Western Sydney into the future.”
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and the Arts Don Harwin said the funding would enable the Government to plan the transformation of the Parramatta Female Factory into a public museum and plan the development of an arts and cultural precinct for Western Sydney creative organisations to operate and collaborate from.
“This funding lays the foundations for the complete restoration of the historic site, transforming the Parramatta Female Factory into a museum that tells the stories of our history for generations to come. This remarkable location deserves to be properly preserved and protected, and I am committed to working towards achieving a World Heritage listing for the site,” Mr Harwin said.
“It will also deliver more cultural infrastructure to the West so that our arts and cultural organisations have a hub to operate from, share ideas and create new works for the public.”
“The funding also includes critical repair and maintenance to Keller House to support the development of a Stolen Generations Keeping Place led by survivors and the Stolen Generations Council.”
Minister for Water, Property and Housing Melinda Pavey said the area is a place of compelling stories and history with enormous cultural significance to the Traditional Owners.
“We are also working in collaboration with Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) on future uses for sites within the precinct.”
“The Western Sydney Startup Hub and café will be the first major activation of the site in 2022 which will be a vibrant place for the community to meet, collaborate and exchange skills and ideas,” Mrs Pavey said.
“With funding secured for additional heritage upgrades, we can now plan for future tenancy and activation of the buildings and open spaces bringing more jobs and opportunities to the area.”
Dr Geoff Lee, Member for Parramatta said “I have been championing for this site since first elected and I am delighted that we are investing $53.8 million.
The NSW Government is working hard through its investment and continued efforts to make this Australia’s best and most sustainable heritage precinct for future generations.”
Gay Hendriksen, President of the Parramatta Female Factory Friends welcomed today’s announcement.
“On behalf of the Parramatta Female Factory Friends I am delighted with this news of the vision and commitment by the State Government of NSW to the much needed conservation, interpretation and access in the form of a museum.
It is heartening to see the respect for the women shown through action and most fitting in this bicentennial year of the women being moved to the Female Factory,” Ms Hendriksen said.
Planning for the site will begin immediately with a final business case to inform a decision on the Parramatta Female Factory museum to be presented back to Government in 2023.
Further details, including invitations for community feedback will be announced in the coming months.
29 August 2015
Push to protect Parramatta Female Factory convict site from developers, call for world heritage listing
By state political reporter Sarah Gerathy and Claire Aird
Posted Thu 20 Aug 2015 at 2:12pm
Campaigners pushing to have the Parramatta Female Factory nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List have likened the former convict institution’s significance to Tasmania’s Port Arthur.
They delivered a petition of 10,000 signatures to the New South Wales Parliament this morning, which will ensure the future of the site will be debated on the floor of the Lower House in the coming months.
The Parramatta Female Factory is the earliest convict women’s site in Australia still in existence, but it has been earmarked for potential development by Urban Growth New South Wales as part of the North Parramatta Heritage Precinct.
There is a proposal to build 3,900 private dwellings around the site, some up to 30 storeys high.
Greens MP David Shoebridge told the group gathered on the steps of parliament this morning the site deserved to be protected.
“The site that it most readily compares itself to is Port Arthur down in Tasmania and when you go to Port Arthur you won’t find multi-storey residential apartment blocks, you won’t find obtrusive development,” he said.
“You find a jewel in the world heritage crown protected in a landscape that understands that we only have one history and, if we kill it with the kind of development Urban Growth is proposing for Parramatta, we will kill it forever.”
The Parramatta Female Factory was built between 1818 and 1821 and was the destination for many female convicts sent to the colony of New South Wales.
It was used as a prison, a hospital, a marriage bureau and an asylum.
It was also the site of the first industrial action ever recorded in Australia — when the women went on strike over wages and conditions 188 years ago.
President of the Parramatta Female Factory Friends Gay Hendriksen said the land should remain in public hands and be developed into a cultural, tourism and learning place of international significance.
“This site is one of the key locations where the Australian identity was forged, yet there are two multi-story buildings planned for inside the Factory and units across the road,” she said.
Ms Hendriksen presented the petition to Greens MP Jamie Parker who will lead a debate over the development proposal.
NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes will have the final say on the development, and has said his primary motivation was to protect the site’s heritage.
Last month, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt announced the site would be assessed for possible inclusion on the National Heritage List.
6 August 2015
Looking back on the first five years
The Parramatta Female Factory Friends started from a community outcry in 2010 to save one of the buildings – the third class sleeping quarters – from being turned into a computer data room which would prevent any possibility of community access to this site.
We were successful in preventing this travesty of ‘adaptive reuse’
31 July 2015
Support for National Heritage
Australian historian #BarbaraCaine signed our petition to declare @parrafactory worthy of #WorldHeritage status. Caine is just one of many academics, heritage architects and NSW Teachers who have gotten behind this cause.
31 July 2015
Parramatta Female Factory Precinct to be assessed for National Heritage List
By Melanie Kembrey, 31 July 2015
Australia’s earliest female convict site, the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct, is being eyed for inclusion on the National Heritage List.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt will announce on Friday that the three-hectare site next to the Parramatta CBD will be assessed for the highest heritage listing in the country.
The precinct has been at the heart of a battle waged by heritage advocates against the NSW government’s property development arm, which aims to build thousands of apartments in area.
The Female Factory was established in 1818 and was the first destination of all unassigned convict women sent to colonial Australia.
The colony’s second governor, John Hunter, described convict women as the “disgrace of their sex”, saying they were “far worse than the men” and “generally found at the bottom of every infamous transaction committed in the colony”.
The prison is within a largely neglected and inaccessible precinct that includes a collection of historic buildings that reflect the formative years of the NSW colony.
Among them is the former Roman Catholic Orphan School, which was established by the government in 1844.
31 July 2015
Part of the original 1818 wall of the Parramatta Female Factory. Behind those windows is a courtyard where solitary confinement cells commissioned by Governor Gipps in the 1830s once stood.
19 June 2015
Development plans could ruin major Australian historical site in Parramatta, heritage groups say
Heritage groups have warned one of Australia’s oldest convict-era sites is under threat from a NSW Government mega-development plan.
The National Trust of Australia (NSW) said a proposal to build high-rise buildings close to Parramatta’s Old Government House would destroy centuries-old landscapes and jeopardise a Unesco World Heritage listing.
The Vice-Regal Headquarters, established by Governor Phillip in May 1788, is the oldest surviving public building in Australia, and has served as a home to 12 colonial leaders.
“The [new] buildings will project above the tree line and the landscaping associated with the site is just as important as the structural component of the site,” Brian Powyer from the trust said.
There is also strong opposition to the construction of a high-rise building within the 1830s yard of the Female Factory, Australia’s oldest women’s prison.
President of the Parramatta Female Factory Friends Gay Hendriksen said apartments should not be built so close to such a nationally significant site.
“It’s estimated one in seven Australians are related to the women who went through the factory,” she said.
“It’s absolutely connected to our identity. This land should absolutely stay in public hands.”
Ms Hendriksen said the Government should restore the site and turn it into a living museum, similar to Port Arthur in Tasmania, for all Australians to enjoy.
“Certainly we need more housing but there are other sites even around Parramatta that can be used,” she said.
“What are we doing handing it over to developers?”
NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes will have the final say on the development and says his primary motivation is to protect the site’s heritage.
“The last thing I want to see is a heritage precinct butting up against 30-storey buildings,” he said.
The Government has promised $103 million to restore the buildings, some of which are rapidly deteriorating.
More heritage funding will also be sought from developers.
“Where there is an opportunity to ensure that site can contribute to its own restoration, that’s a really sensible thing for us to do,” Mr Stokes said.
The proposal put forward by Urban Growth, the development arm of the NSW Government, originally sought to build approximately 4,100 apartments with buildings up to 30 storeys high in an iconic North Parramatta site.
That has been reduced to approximately 3,900 dwellings, following community consultations.
“We have listened to community consultation and the scale of the buildings within the heritage precinct has been reduced,” Urban Growth’s head of urban transformation division Simon Paggett said.
“We hope that when people see the final plans that have been approved, they will be positively received,” he said.
Urban Growth expects around 146 hectares of public land will be divided into super lots and sold. The first parcel is due to go under the hammer in 2016.
Local residents have warned they will escalate their fight against the mega-development.
14 November 2014
Parramatta Female Factory – Our Fair Ladies
Around one in five Australians are related to women who were incarcerated at the Parramatta Female Factory. The Factory itself is one of our most significant historical spaces; a Francis Greenway building and our oldest convict women’s site. But now its survival is under threat
Paula Grunseit spoke to historians about their campaign to save the precinct, and their work in recording the stories of the women who passed through its gates.
Courtesy of the National Library of Australia.
When Governor Lachlan Macquarie laid the foundation stone for the Parramatta Female Factory (PFF) on 4 May 1818, he would not have imagined that nine years later the site would be the place of the first riot led by women in Australia. Originally built to house all unassigned convict women who were transported to New South Wales, it was the first purpose-built factory and became multifunctional, acting as a workhouse, refuge, marriage bureau, assignment bureau, hospital, asylum and prison. Around 5,000 of the 24,960 women who were transported to the colony were incarcerated there.
Courtesy of the Australian Society of Genealogists.
The site is currently used by Cumberland Hospital and is managed by the Western Sydney Local Area Network. The historic buildings are not publicly accessible and some are in a state of significant disrepair. Now its survival is threatened by poor custodianship.
Gay Hendriksen, president of the Parramatta Female Factory Friends, and her colleagues are campaigning to have the site world heritage listed. It has state heritage listing status, and is under consideration for national heritage listing, but has been identified for “adaptive reuse”, a broad term that concerns the group because it does not rule out residential or commercial development. The group would like to see the site used as a national resource and learning centre, and for educational tourism. “We’d like to see the site open to everyone,” says Gay. “Around one in five to one in seven people in Australia are related to someone who went through Parramatta’s factory. We see it as an Australian story, a women’s story, a children’s story and a men’s story, as men built this place and their lives are interwoven with the lives of the women.”
The Action Group’s supporters include Federal member for Parramatta, Julie Owens, Cardinal George Pell, activist Jack Mundey and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), who have agreed to place a Green Ban on the site. “With this Green Ban we will stop any development that would harm the building further and ensure more thought is given to saving the site,” says Brian Parker, state secretary of the CFMEU.
Gay and her colleagues Judith Dunn, Beth Matthews and Anne Mathews are passionate about discovering and recording the neglected stories of women in Australia’s colonial history. Gay curated the highly successful Women Transported — Life In Australia’s Female Factories exhibition that toured Australia from 2008 to 2011 and describes it as a mad obsession. “The women’s stories are timeless,” she says. “They are the experiences of wives, mothers and sisters and deal with the kinds of issues we still have today. The difference is that these women were in dire circumstances at such a flash point of change in history. They came through it and were the voices of that change”.
Beth Matthews has direct connections with some of the women via her family history. “I have a love of Australian history and I belong to several historical societies,” says Beth. “We have a list of about 10,000 crimes of women who went through the factory and a lot them went through five or six times. We want to do 5,000 profiles; so far we’ve done 2,800. Anne [Mathews] and I are still working on it.” As there is no funding for this project, it’s purely a labour of love. “When we take tours through, people are amazed to see so much history sitting there with nothing happening. We desperately need this world heritage listing,” she says.
Tour guide Judith Dunn also loves the site. “If you can hear a story, I think then you can have empathy and understand what it had been like for those people to live in those times. That’s what I try to do. I tell personal stories and it’s so important that we continue to gather them,” she says.
Judith’s book Colonial Ladies: Lovely, Lively and Lamentably Loose is the result of her five-year study of newspapers documenting every crime that saw a woman sent to the PFF. “You rarely hear the women’s voices [in the records] so there’s a big gap in what we know about how they felt,” she says. “Occasionally the crime reports record something a woman says and they’re the only direct words of the women that you get and some of them are very memorable.” Like convict Julia Allen for example.
These women experienced unimaginable hardship. They lost all rights to their children, who were removed and placed in the Orphan School. Anne Mullins was one of these women, says Judith. Her two children had been taken away but she was allowed to visit them. She was jailed for returning late after one visit — a harsh punishment considering the ‘crime’. Asked to give an account of herself in court, she said: “You must know that my name is Anne Mullins and no mistake. A better washerwoman than me never stood at the tub or made soap lather. I say it that should not say it — I’m a trump. Can anyone here say that I’m not? No! I’ve been a good servant and for this you kick me in the teeth.”
Despite all the crushing odds, they were women of great spirit and the PFF was the site of the first known female workers action in Australia. In October 1827, a group of women broke through the gates when their rations were cut — no tea, no bread, no sugar — and rampaged through the streets chased by armed sergeants with orders to quell the women. Further riots occurred in the following years. These actions and the women’s lives are commemorated annually in October at the site with celebratory walks and other activities.
Courtesy of the State Library of NSW
24 October 2014
Riot Day at Parramatta Female Factory commemorates Convict Rebellion
By Deborah Fitzgerald, Parramatta Advertiser, 24 October 2014.
As the debate about the future of the convict-era Parramatta Female Factory heats up, Riot Day on Friday will commemorate the first workers uprising in Australia, a forerunner to the suffragette and union movements.
In 1827, convict women assigned to the factory were incensed at having their rations removed and broke out of the factory running through the streets of Parramatta.
Parramatta Female Factory Friends are offering tours of the historic Francis Greenway-designed building to commemorate the riot and to highlight the significance of the factory.
There are moves to have the building World Heritage listed as one of the earliest convict-era precincts in Australia amid fears the development of 1600 apartments in North Parramatta will impact the bid.
NORTH PARRAMATTA’S CONVICT PRECINCT AT RISK
President Gay Hendrickson said the riot and the factory were significant in the history of Australian women although still largely unrecognised in the history books.
She said the contribution of these women should not be underestimated.
“Has the sense of strong spirit and ‘we can survive anything, do anything’, come from these women?”
“Many of us can identify with all these aspects but few would source the nature of the Australian character in any degree to these women.”
Timeline
October 21, 1827: Unrest in the factory. Matron Raines reduced the tea and sugar
October 23, 1827: Women in 3rd class riot and take over the yard, expelling a constable
October 26, 1827: Matron Gordon begins as matron and at 7am stops the allowance of bread and sugar altogether. The women threaten to tear down the factory if the rations are not reinstated immediately. 200 women attack the workmen taking hammers and sledges. The women break down the gates and run through Parramatta, attacking bakers shops
The factory was home to at least 5000 convict women from whom an estimated one-in-five Australians are descended and many people have traced their ancestory to the factory including Ronda and John Gaffey.
Their great, great grandmother Sarah Scott was sent to Australia from County Armagh in Ireland in 1828 and assigned to the Parramatta Female Factory.
She left a husband and two children behind when she was transported for robbing a purse.
Despite the heartache and degradation endured, she became a mid-wife on release and had eight more children.
“John and Ronda are the descendants of her eldest son William Templeton.”
“The more we discovered about our history, we fell in love with Our Sarah as we call her.”
21 July 2014
