Australian Heritage Database
Places for Decision
Class: Historic 

Identification	
List: 	National Heritage List	
Name of Place: 	Cascades Female Factory - Yards 1, 3, and Yard 4 South	
Other Names: 		
Place ID: 	105932	
File No: 	6/01/004/0038	
		
Nomination Date: 	26/07/2006	
Principal Group: 	Law and Enforcement	
 		
Status		
Legal Status: 	27/07/2006 - Nominated place	
Admin Status: 	09/08/2006 - Under assessment by AHC--Australian place	
 		
Assessment		
		
Recommendation: 	Place meets one or more NHL criteria	
Assessor's Comments: 		
Other Assessments: 	: 	
 		
Location		
Nearest Town: 	South Hobart	
   Distance from town (km): 		
   Direction from town: 		
Area (ha): 	.5	
Address: 	8,16,18 Degraves St, South Hobart, TAS 7004	
LGA: 	Hobart City TAS	
Location/Boundaries:
About 0.5ha, Degraves Street, South Hobart, comprising Land Parcels 1/202398, 1/229358 and 1/229260.
Assessor's Summary of Significance:
Cascades Female Factory is highly significant because of its association with the lives of convict women, its demonstration of the changing philosophies of punishment and reform as they relate to women and as a place of tremendous suffering and harsh treatment.  Convict women made a significant contribution to the development of the colonies.  They contributed through their labour and their presence enabled social cohesion and stability as they populated the colonies. Over half of the 25 000 convict women transported to Australia were sent to Van Diemen’s Land.  The majority of these spent some time at Cascades Female Factory as it was the primary site for the reception and incarceration of women convicts and was one of the colony’s longest running penal institutions operating from 1828 to 1856.  
Female factories were a unique colonial response to the management of convict women, one that reflects both moral and penal philosophies.  The factories were multifunctional but were intended largely for reform.  They operated as places of work, places of punishment, hiring depots and places of shelter for women between assignments and those who were sick, infirm or pregnant.  The high exterior walls surrounding Yards 1, 3 and 4 south remaining at Cascades Female Factory demonstrate the desire to isolate convict women from negative influences and in turn protect society from their corrupting influence.  The matron’s cottage at Yard 4 south demonstrates its function both as the residence of the administrator and a model for civil society.
Cascades Female Factory had a range of infrastructure associated with its different functions, most of which is now archaeological remains.  Yard 1 which was initially the full extent of the factory is thought to contain subsurface evidence of convict dormitories, twelve solitary cells, chapel, staff quarters, and separate courtyards and buildings for the nursery, hospital, kitchen and punishment, crime and hiring classes.  
The changing approaches to punishment and reform are demonstrated in the move from convict dormitories in Yard 1 to the solitary apartments in Yard 3 built in 1845 which survive as sandstone footings and sub-floor cavities.  Isolation from fellow convicts was considered in the time of the probation system to be conducive to repentance and reform.
Cascade Female Factory is highly significant as a site of great suffering.  Its appalling living conditions and excessively high infant mortality were the subject of numerous inquests and inquiries.  Unlike any other penal institution, the suffering fell disproportionately on children and poor women and was not the result of punishment regimes.  Although the causes of suffering and the management regimes are very different, it can be considered along with Norfolk Island as a place of harshness.
Cascades Female Factory as represented by Yards 1, 3 and 4 south is uncommon in its extensive sub-surface occupational deposits which reflect the evolution of the Female Factory, and the later phases of its use.  Yards 1, 3 and 4 south are largely unexcavated and have considerable archaeological and research potential.  There are also extensive documentary and pictorial collections associated with the site.  The archaeological potential along with the documentary and pictorial collections can significantly add to the knowledge and understanding of convict women and their children which is an emerging area of study and scholarship.  Cascades Female Factory is highly valued by community groups and historians as a place that reflects the significant story of convict women.  The absence of intact historic sites and fabric associated with convict women makes what remains at Cascade Female Factory very important.  The place has become an important catalyst for academic and community interest in the important role convict women played in the development of the colonies.  Cascades Female Factory site is also valued as important part of the wider story of women in Australia. 

Draft Values:	
Criterion	Values	Rating	
A Events, Processes	Cascades Female Factory is highly significant because of its association with the lives of convict women, its demonstration of the changing philosophies of punishment and reform as they relate to women and as a place of tremendous suffering and inhumane treatment.  
 
Convict women made a significant contribution to the development of the colonies.  They contributed their labour and their presence was regarded as contributing to social cohesion and stability and they populated the colonies.
 
Over half of the 25 000 convict women sent to Australia were sent to Van Diemen’s Land, the majority spending some time at Cascades Female Factory as it was the primary site for the reception and incarceration of women convicts. It was one of the colony’s longest running penal institutions operating from 1828 to 1856.  
 
Female factories were a unique colonial response to the management of convict women, one that reflects both moral and penal philosophies.  The factories were multifunctional but were intended largely for reform.  They operated as places of work, places of punishment, hiring depots and places of shelter for women between assignments and those who were sick, infirm or pregnant.  
 
The high exterior walls surrounding Yards 1, 3 and 4 south remaining at Cascades Female Factory demonstrate the need to isolate convict women from negative influences and in turn protect society from their corrupting influence.  The matron’s cottage at Yard 4 South demonstrates its function both as the residence of the administrator and a model for civil society.
 
Cascades Female Factory had a range of infrastructure associated with its different functions, most of which is now archaeological remains.  Yard 1 which was initially the full extent of the factory is thought to contain subsurface evidence of convict dormitories, twelve solitary cells, chapel, staff quarters, and separate courtyards and buildings for the nursery, hospital, kitchen and punishment, crime and hiring classes.  
 
The changing approaches to punishment and reform are demonstrated in the move from convict dormitories in Yard 1 to the solitary apartments in Yard 3 built in 1845 which survive as sandstone footings and subfloor cavities.  Isolation from fellow convicts was considered in the time of the probation system to be conducive to repentance and reform.
 
Cascade Female Factory is highly significant as a site of great suffering.  Its appalling living conditions and excessively high infant mortality were the subject of numerous inquests and inquiries.  Unlike any other penal institution, the suffering fell disproportionately on children and poor women and was not the result of punishment regimes.  Although the causes of suffering and the management regimes are very different, it can be considered along with Norfolk Island as a place of harshness and inhumanity.
 	AT	
B Rarity	Cascades Female Factory is rare as the only remaining female factory with substantial extant visible fabric. The remaining walls in particular evoke a sense of the isolation, control and harshness experienced by women convicts and their children.
 
Cascades Female Factory as represented by Yards 1, 3 and 4 south is also uncommon in its extensive sub-surface occupational deposits which reflect the evolution of the Female Factory, and the later phases of its use.
 	AT	
C Research	Yards 1, 3 and 4 south are largely unexcavated and have considerable archaeological and research potential.  There are also extensive documentary and pictorial collections associated with the site.  The archaeological potential along with the documentary and pictorial collections can significantly add to the knowledge and understanding of convict women and their children which is an emerging area of study and scholarship.
  	AT	
G Social value	Cascades Female Factory is highly valued by community groups and historians as a place that reflects the significant story of convict women.  The absence of intact historic sites and fabric associated with convict women makes what remains at Cascade Female Factory very important.
 
The place has become an important catalyst for academic and community interest in the important role convict women played in the development of the colonies.  Cascades Female Factory site is also valued as important part of the wider story of women in Australia.
 	AT	
Historic Themes: 
Nominator's Summary of Significance:
The Cascades Female Factory Historic Site (CFFHS) is a nationally significant symbol of Australia's female convict and pioneering past. Australia's female colonial history is an emotive and all too often trivialised part of the colonial system. It is often overlooked that punishment and retribution were applied to women and children in addition to its male charges and that women contributed strongly in pioneering the British colony in Australia, doing much of the physical work of homes, towns and farms, and bearing of the next generation. More than half the 25,000 women transported to Australia came to Van Diemen's Land, and most of these had a connection with the Cascades Factory either as a place of reception from ships, a place of punishment, or a hiring depot.

The CFFHS is significant in a national and international context as part of a major historic human migration movement which resulted from British colonial policy during the 19th century. In employing exiled penal labour as an occupational vanguard preceding more substantive free settlement, the British crown established a blueprint that allowed it to occupy and retain control of one of the largest colonial empires in history. The CFFHS should therefore be seen as a part of an internationally significant historic event that left a vast social and cultural legacy throughout the former colonial British Empire. 

The CFFHS demonstrates many important facets of the Colonial penal system through its structural configuration and evolution over time including changing social attitudes during the convict period and subsequent end of transportation. The CFFHS forms part of a relatively small group of surviving sites dating from the formative convict period. Its role as a purpose built place for the incarceration of women and children increases its rarity and significance accordingly. 

Within the Tasmanian context, the CFFHS was a long lived and pivotal centre of confinement for convicts and social outcasts (1828-1903). As such it figures prominently in the social history of Tasmania from which resident socially disenfranchised members came to be re-located and concentrated for administrative purposes. It can be seen as a major venue for understanding convict history generically in addition to the convict period development of Tasmania and the city of Hobart. The significance of the CFFHS is made more tangible by the well researched lives of the individual women and children who were incarcerated here and of their administrators, including Matron Mary Hutchinson who has a Nationally significant life story related to colonial female public service, female factories and Methodist missionaries in the Pacific.

The bleak nature of the CFFHS Courtyard 1 has strong aesthetic value. The low density historically cohesive nature of the surrounding residential area is an appropriate backdrop to the whole CFFHS. The presence of Mount Wellington and the adjacent Hobart rivulet provide an environment very reminiscent of those depicted in mid 19th century illustrations of the Female Factory. Likewise the 19th and early 20th century housing provide an additional but sympathetic addition to the contemporary vista surrounding the site. Collectively these elements ensure that the CFFHS retains a high degree of environmental authenticity. 

The surviving physical evidence of the CFFHS also has exceptional implications for scientific and historical research and for cultural inspiration. Although the bulk of the site occurs below the ground, research to date has indicated that the archaeological resource survives to a high degree of integrity in all three yards. In addition, associated documentation consisting of prison records, photographs and artefacts has great potential to add to the site's capacity to impart an evocative and holistic story about the convict experience. Therefore, the value of the CFFHS for community education and cultural venue cannot be understated. 

The CFFHS reflects much about gender in Australian (particularly colonial) society. Because of this association the site is of great social significance to contemporary Australian women. This is demonstrated by the enthusiasm and support for the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site by women's organisations and networks (research, support, cultural and social) both at a State and National level. 

The association of the site with the Aboriginal woman 'Truganini' is highly significant in what it reflects of race relations in Tasmanian and the greater Australian `contact' history.

The Cascades Female Factory (CFFHS) is significant in a national and international context as part of a major historic human migration movement, which resulted from British colonial policy during the 19th century. In employing exiled penal labour as an occupational vanguard preceding more substantive free settlement, the British crown established a blueprint that allowed it to occupy and retain control of one of the largest colonial empires in history. The CFFHS should therefore be seen as a part of an internationally significant historic event that left a vast social and cultural legacy throughout the former colonial British Empire

The Cascades Female Factory demonstrates many important facets of the colonial penal system through its structural configuration and evolution over time, which reflects changing social attitudes during the convict period and subsequent end of transportation. As one of the earliest surviving facilities constructed in Van Diemen's Land, the Cascades Female Factory forms part of a relatively small group of surviving sites in public ownership dating from the early convict period. Its role as a purpose built place for the incarceration of women and children increases its rarity and significance accordingly. 

The Cascades Female Factory was a long lived and pivotal centre of confinement for convicts and social outcasts (1828-1903). As such it figures prominently in the social history of the Hobart region from which resident socially disenfranchised members came to be concentrated for administrative purposes. It is a major venue for understanding convict history of Australia generically and the impact of convictism on subsequent historical and social development.

The Cascades Female Factory was not only a prison but also a factory, a hiring depot, and a nursery for the children of convict women. Its use as a female factory reflects the mid-19th century reform of the prison system in Britain, particularly as it affected women. The documentary and archaeological evidence of the CFFHS clearly demonstrate these changes in the Australian context.

After the end of transportation in 1853, the Cascades Female Factory was recycled as a welfare institution for various outcasts of society-lunatics; the chronically ill, aged and blind; paupers; boys under sentence; women giving birth to illegitimate children; and women deemed prostitutes and gaoled under the Contagious Diseases Act. Many of these groups who were substantially human legacies of the Colonial convict system. The succession of institutions at the site represents the whole journey from the penal oppression of convict times to late philanthropy and social control. The Cascades Establishment is one of the few historic places in Australia where such continuity can be easily traced through its development.

The Cascades Female Factory is one of only a few well documented female factory sites in Australia and is therefore a rare place which has an outstanding connection with the women's history in Australia in the early to mid 19th century. More than half the 25,000 women transported to Australia came to Van Diemen's Land, and most of these had a connection with the Cascades Factory either as a place of reception from ships, a place of punishment, or a hiring depot. Women contributed an important role in pioneering the British colony in Australia, doing much of the physical work of homes, towns and farms, and through their bearing of the next generation.

The site is one of the few in Australia with visible archaeological features from the early Female Convict Phase. It has proven extensive sub-surface occupational deposits relating to this and other phases of its use. 

The integrity of the existing archaeological resource across all the Yards at the Cascade Female Factory and within associated nearby places offers a unique opportunity for material culture research to provide an eloquent insight into the convict experience. 

In combination, the oral tradition, documentary evidence, collections, structures and archaeological features at the Cascades Female Factory have highly significant potential for community education.

The Cascades Female Factory Historic Site is an exceptional example of a 19th century Colonial Female Convict incarceration facility in Australia. Female transportation and incarceration and its management formed an important part of a broader punishment, probationary and emancipation themes associated with the initial settlement of both the Australian mainland and the island of Tasmania.

The Cascades Female Historic Site has significant visual and historical characteristics which inspire contemporary scholarship and culture. Examples include learned articles and literature in journals seminars, performances and art installations both on site and performed elsewhere .

Yard 1 of the Cascades Female Historic Site is an outstanding case of an historic place whose melancholy character enhances its social and historical significance; the aspect of the place is so bleak most of the year it serves to evoke a material reflection of the Western social policy, particularly as in relates to women, in the nineteenth century. 

The low density and historically cohesive nature of the surrounding residential area is an appropriate backdrop to the Cascades Female Factory site which heightens the visitor experience. The presence of Mount Wellington and the adjacent Hobart rivulet provide an environment very reminiscent of those depicted in mid 19th century illustrations of the Female Factory. Likewise the 19th and early 20th century housing provide an additional but sympathetic addition to the contemporary vista surrounding the site. Collectively these elements ensure that the Cascades Female Factory retains a high degree of environmental authenticity. 

The Cascades Female Factory begun c.1828, is the oldest prison designed, purpose built and administered solely for women which retains substantial significant built and archaeological fabric. 

The site contains archaeological evidence of a range of convict cell types (flanking, single and alternating cells) varying greatly in design. The flanking cells used for solitary confinement in the First Yard were particularly rare in the history of prison design. 

The association of the site with 'Truganini' is highly significant in what it reflects of race relations in Tasmanian and greater Australian contact history. Because of this association, the site is of considerable social significance to Tasmania's contemporary Aboriginal community. 

The Cascades Female Factory is a nationally significant symbol of Australia's Female convict past, an emotive and all too often trivialised part of the colonial penal system that applied punishment and retribution to women and children in addition to its male charges. 

The site reflects much about gender in colonial society. Because of this association, the site is of great social significance to contemporary Australian women and feminists. This is demonstrated by the enthusiasm shown for the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site by women's research, support and social organisations and networks both at a State and National level. For example the National Council of Women of Australia has formed a Committee for the Conservation of the Female Factory at Cascades. 

The Female Factory at Cascades is a site of major significance in the history of Australian women. It represents many aspects of women's history - its role as a women's prison being only one of them. Both the fabric and the operation of the institutions which once operated on the site tell the story of the central relationships that made up the female convict experience including those: between women and the prison authorities, between women and men, between women and their children, with each other and between women and their masters. 

The interment of the Tasmanian Aboriginal woman `Truganini' in Yard 1 for a period of two years prior to the removal of her remains, links that part of the Female Factory Site to post contact Aboriginal history and the less savory practices associated with 19th century British scientific profession and its impact on Indigenous Australia. 

Mary Hutchinson (nee Oakes) was matron of the Cascade Female Factory from 1832 to 1851. Her life story is one which touches poignantly on the social history of women in early Australian colonial society including a childhood spent as daughter of the Superintendent at the Parramatta Female Factory; experience as a Methodist Missionary on Tonga in 1826 ?28, the loss of six of her children during infancy, and (following her long and controversial stint at Cascades Female Factory) an appointment in charge of the Launceston Female Factory until 1854 when she retired (transportation to Van Diemen's Land having ceased in 1853).

Yard 1 was designed by the noted Colonial Architect John Lee Archer. Archaeological investigations have revealed that his ground plan design was in fact implemented and the surviving sub surface archaeology of Yard 1 admirably expresses this. 

There are further associations between the Cascade Female Factory and noted personages in Tasmanian and Australian history including Lieutenant Governor Sir John Franklin, Lady Jane Franklin, Sir Eardley Wilmot and Captain William Denison.

The Cascades Female Factory Historic Site is not nominated to the National Heritage List under this criteria at this time, although the site's Aboriginal heritage values may be found to have significance at a National level in the future.
Description:
The former Cascades Female Factory site comprising five yards, cemetery and outbuildings is contained within a rectangular city block in the district of south Hobart. The factory site itself is bounded by Syme Street to the north, Degraves Street to the south, Degraves Lane to the east and McRobies road to the west.  
 
For the purposes of this nomination, the three yards may be described as being bound to the north by Syme Street, to the east by Degraves Lane and to the south by Degraves Street. The western boundary is demarcated by a private property (formerly yard 2) containing an Apostolic place of worship.
 
The postal address for Yards 3 and 4 south is 16 Degraves Street. Although Yard 1 has an allocated postal address, it is managed by state government nominees who are situated elsewhere. 
 
Cascades Female Factory is located within the suburban district of south Hobart, approximately three kilometres south west of the Hobart GPO. Topographically this area is part of the Hobart rivulet catchment which drains the eastern slopes of Mount Wellington. Cascades Female Factory consists of two and a half of the five secure yards that formerly comprised the main Female Factory complex; namely Yard 1, Yard 3 and Yard 4 south.
  
Yard 1
Yard 1 is the oldest of the separate walled enclosures to be erected at Cascades Female Factory, with parts first constructed as Lowes Distillery in 1824. Until the resident structures were demolished and the site cleared for public sale in 1904, Yard 1 contained the most extensive amount of infrastructure at the Female Factory, including a two storey building along the length of each main side wall (east and west) with rooms about 12 feet wide; a chapel; two story staff quarters 60 by 17 feet, the upstairs being for the superintendent’s family, the downstairs for offices and the gatekeeper; a courtyard divided into seven smaller yards, one for the entrance and offices, and one each for the nursery, hospital and kitchen; a yard for each classification of female convicts – first or assignable class, second class and third or crime class. Twelve solitary cells were also included in the north western corner building of the old distillery.
 
Today Yard 1 consists of the following elements associated with Cascades Female Factory:
* Approximately 90 per cent intact 1824 -1827 coursed sandstone rubble perimeter wall 
* Re-opened doorway linking Yards 1 and 3
* Sub surface archaeological deposits. Archaeological test excavations (Kostoglou 2000) revealed substantial sandstone footings consistent with the 1827 ground plan designed by noted Architect John Lee Archer. Kostoglou (2001, 2002) suggests the entire Archer ground plan of this yard survives intact at the footings level beneath almost a metre of demolition rubble. 
 
Contemporary features in Yard 1 include: 
* Concrete building slab in the north west corner formerly supporting a wine factory (1960s, demolished 1980s)
* Concertina style interpretation panels erected by the previous government land manager (DPIWE).
* Park benches.
* Grassed area extending throughout 80 per cent of the yard. 
 
Yard 3
Until the resident structures were demolished and the site cleared for public sale some time prior to 1904, Yard 3 contained the bulk of Cascades Female Factory cellular confinement infrastructure. 
 
Today Yard 3 consists of the following elements associated with Cascades Female Factory:
* Approximately 40 per cent intact c1824-1827 coursed sandstone rubble perimeter wall on two sides (east and west) – the wall between Yard 3 and 4 was commissioned at a later date by John Franklin.
* Re-opened doorway linking Yards 1 and 3
* Sub surface archaeological deposits. Excavations (Kostoglou 2001, 2002) revealed intact sandstone footings and sub floor cavities, relating to the solitary apartments and offices along the front (south) wall, beneath various layers of post demolition fill. Two sections of excavations have been left open for public viewing after being lined and roofed.  It is also possible that the c1976 factory building erected in the centre of the yard may have been built on a sufficiently shallow cement slab as to have allowed the survival of fabric beneath. 
 
Contemporary features in Yard 3 include:
* The western half of the yard has been landscaped and planted out to create a ‘garden of remembrance’.
* A c1976 factory building in the centre of the yard (this building provides the Female Factory Historic Site Limited with administration and leased rental space).
 
Yard 4 south
Originally, a 160 by 26 feet nursery built of stone, brick and timber was placed along the western wall facing east. The yard also included the matron’s cottage, sub-matron’s cottage, large open shed, kitchen and laundry. The yard was surrounded by a stone perimeter wall (Rayner, 1981).
 
Today Yard 4 south consists of the following elements associated with Cascades Female Factory:
* The matron’s cottage (1849) situated in the south east corner is a single storey brick cottage with the original four rooms heated by two double fireplaces, and later 19th century additions including two rooms to the eastern elevation.
* Sandstone brick paved courtyard to the rear of the matron’s cottage.
* Approximately 25 per cent intact original coursed sandstone rubble perimeter wall.
* Open yard space and currently backfilled archaeological excavation. The excavation (Kostoglou, 2005) exposed robust sandstone footings and sub floor cavities relating to the sub-matron’s cottage, covered walkway, kitchen/laundry and nursery apartments. These features survive at depth in an excellent state of preservation beneath various layers of post demolition fill. Kostoglou (2006) suggests that the integrity of these deposits extends northwards throughout the remainder of Yard 4, despite its separate ownership and light industrial additions throughout the 20th century.
 
Contemporary features in Yard 4 south include:
* A paved courtyard situated immediately north of the matron’s cottage.
* Toilet addition to the rear of the matron’s cottage.
* Timber shed.
 
Matron’s cottage collection
Much of the matron’s cottage collection is privately owned or owned by other institutions and is on loan to Cascades Female Factory Ltd. There are approximately 450 items in the collection and it continues to grow. The scope of the collection covers the late convict period to the site’s closure in 1904. It includes convict relics, furniture, decorative arts, documents and photographs. 
 
Archaeological Collection
There are currently over 2 000 moveable artefacts comprising Cascades Female Factory Archaeological Collection. These are derived from all stages of European occupation of the site. The bulk of the items come from the mid to late convict period.
Analysis:
(a) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia's natural or cultural history; and
 
The nominator made the following claims against the criterion
1. Cascades Female Factory (CFFHS) is significant as part of a major historic migration movement in the employment of penal labor which allowed it to retain control of one of the largest colonial empires in history. 
2. As one of a small group of surviving sites, CFFHS demonstrates a number of important facets of the penal system through its structural configuration and evolution through time. 
3. CFFHS figures prominently in the social history of the Hobart region and, as such, is a major venue for understanding convictism and its subsequent historical and social development. 
4. The documentary and archaeological evidence of the CFFHS demonstrate the 19th century reform of the prison system in Britain, particularly as it affected women, and within an Australian context. 
5. The longevity of use and succession of institutions at the CFFHS well represent the social journey from penal oppression of convict times to late philanthropy and social control. Such development and continuity can be easily traced through the stratigraphy present at CFFHS. 
 
Claims 1, 2, and 4 will be considered in the following analysis.  Claim 3 is considered to be of state significance only.  Individual convict sites are often the venue and impetus for understanding convictism.  Hyde Park Barracks has extensive displays and periodic exhibitions to explain the role of convicts in society.  Similarly the Great North Road is part of the convict trail project which allows people to research convict life.  Claim 5 is also regarded as of state significance.  Port Arthur has a similar history of philanthropy and social control while Hyde Park Barracks evolved to house free immigrant women.  The post convict history at Cascades Female Factory demonstrates the close relationship between hospitals, prisons and reformatory schools, however, this multilayered use is not of itself considered to be nationally significant in the course or pattern of Australia’s history.  
 
Analysis
 
Associations with convict women
While Cascades Female Factory is a significant part of a major historic migration movement, its significance to the nation is due to its special and tangible association with convict women. Convict women made up only 10 per cent of the total convict population and are regarded by some commentators as marginal to the convict story.  However, convict women did make a significant economic and social contribution.  They “became market women, dealers, street sellers, worked as dressmakers, seamstresses, milliners, laundresses, washerwomen, pastry cooks and confectioners” … and as ticket of leave holders could “apply for government licenses to brew, to distil, to bake, to own or lease a public house, to engage in trade and to sell to the Commissariat” (Robinson (1993: p6).  They also provided domestic services to private masters and to government officials.  
 
Convict women were considered by the colonial authorities as necessary for social cohesion.  In 1820, the ratio of males to females was almost ten to three, and nearly nine to one among the convict population (Davidson et al, p131). Large numbers of convict women were sent to Van Diemen’s Land in the 1820s to address the gender imbalance.  Resulting from this, convict women were, for a large part, the mothers of the first generation of Australian born contributing approximately 80 per cent of children born in the first 30 years of the colony (MacNab and Ward,1961 p298).
 
Punishment and Reform
Convict women presented the colonial authorities with a problem, they were considered necessary for social cohesion but were also viewed as a moral threat to society.  They needed protection from the harmful influences of society but their reformation was based on work.  They were deemed ineligible for the labour required for public infrastructure and were unable to adequately contribute to work if they became pregnant or were nursing infants.
 
To manage these conflicting requirements of morality, reform and punishment, colonial authorities devised the unique system of female factories.  Initially conceived as government supervised work places, the factories quickly became multifunctional serving as institutions for all matters related to women.  They were places of work, punishment, hiring depots and provided shelter for women between assignments, or were sick, infirm, or pregnant.  As colonial authorities became more systematic in their development of new free and penal settlements, female factories became regarded as necessary infrastructure.  The control and management of convict women became important for the overall success of the settlement.  
 
The system of female factories provided the structure in which the different penal philosophies of assignment and probation were implemented.  The assignment of women to private masters and their care between assignments was undertaken at female factories.  Punishment and secondary punishment took place at the factories and when the probation system was introduced, so did their confinement in solitary cells.  Female factories were the first place to introduce a classification system for convicts.   Similarly, the concept of, and infrastructure for, isolation from corrupting influences was introduced in the penal control of women before that of men (Rayner, 2005).
 
Because of its longevity as a convict site Cascades Female Factory demonstrates several changes in the evolution of the convict system, the two major philosophies of convict management in Australia, including assignment and probation, which reflects changing social attitudes during the convict period.  There are archaeological remains demonstrating the classification system, convict dormitories, punishment cells and in Yard 3 built in the probation era, remains of an extensive solitary cell complex.
 
Place of suffering
Overcrowding and mismanagement at Cascades Female Factory resulted in sickness and disease.  Pregnancy outside of marriage was deemed to be the result of the immorality of women and hence treated as a punishable crime. Once the child was born, convict women were seen to be a corrupting influence on them and separation of mother and child was a moral imperative.  Official policies which separated convict mothers from their children during the weaning process certainly added to distress and suffering and may have made a contribution to death rates (Maxwell-Stewart, 2007, notes).  Children born within Cascades Female Factory were much more likely to die in infancy.  The high mortality rate and the appalling conditions were the subject of numerous coronial inquests and  inquiries during the operation of the factory.  A series of medical officers brought the worst aspects to the attention of the colonial authorities, however, the mismanagement continued to occur.  In the last inquiry into Cascades Female Factory, Dr Edward Hall gave evidence that death rates in the new nursery in Yard 4 were 40 per cent higher than the surrounding population between 1851 and 1853.  The suffering of the women at Cascades Female Factory was mostly due to neglect and moral prejudice.  Overarching the considerations of treatment of women was the belief that expenditure on convict women and children was an enormous drain on colonial funds. Strategies that reduced outgoings were favoured upon and meagre clothing, food allowances and limited access to medical attention was often a result. 
 
The suffering of the women and children at Cascades Female Factory differs from that in other penal institutions such as Norfolk Island and the Coal Mines where it resulted from harsh physical punishment.  The suffering inflicted at such places was the result of deliberate actions and strategies to subdue and break recalcitrant behaviour and often involved physical abuse such as flogging, solitary incarceration and withdrawal of food allowances.  At Cascades Female Factory, much of the suffering was a result of neglect and prejudice and fell disproportionately on the weak and vulnerable. It nevertheless demonstrates the callous treatment of convicts just as Coal Mines and Norfolk Island do.  
 
Cascades Female Factory has outstanding heritage value to the nation against Criterion (a). 

(b) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia's natural or cultural history;
 
The nominator made a number of claims against this criterion
1.  CFFHS is one of only a few well documented female factory sites in Australia and is therefore a rare place which has an outstanding connection with the important pioneering role of women in Australia in the early to mid 19th century. 
2. CFFHS displays an unusually high quality of visible archaeological features from the early Female Convict Phase, as well as extensive sub-surface occupational deposits relating to this and other phases of its use. 
 
These claims will be addressed in the following analysis.
 
Analysis
 
The nominator’s claim that Cascade Female Factory is rare is supported.  It is the only remaining female factory with substantial extant visible remains.  The visible remains evoke the isolation, control and harshness of the conditions faced by its inmates.
 
There were 11 female factories built and operated exclusively for the management of convict women.  
 
Female Factories
Old Parramatta Female Factory, NSW          c.1800-20
Newcastle Female Factory, NSW                  c.1818-48
New Parramatta Female Factory, NSW         1821-48
Old Hobart Female Factory, VDL                 1822-28
George Town Female Factory, VDL              1824-35
Cascades Female Factory, VDL                  1828-56
Moreton Bay Female Factory, NSW (Qld)    1829-48
Port Macquarie Female Factory, NSW          c.1831-42
Bathurst Female Factory, NSW                     c. 1832-46
Launceston Female Factory, VDL                 1834-46
Eagle Farm Female Factory, NSW, (Qld)     1836-1839
Ross Female Factory, VDL                            1848-54
(table derived from Maxwell-Stewart, 2006)
 
Female convicts were also interned (en route to assignments and as a punishment for misbehaviour) at Richmond Gaol, which survives intact (Department of Tourism Arts and the Environment, 2006a).  There were also other female convict sites such as the HMS Anson (c.1844-50) which served as a probation station, mostly moored in the vicinity of Prince of Wales Bay on the River Derwent (near Hobart), and various hiring depots around Tasmania which cannot be not strictly classed as female factories (Rayner, 2005).  These places have not been included in comparative analysis because they did not operate as female factories.
 
 Of the 11 female factories Cascades in Hobart and Parramatta in NSW (NSW) were considered to be the most important (Rayner 2005).   After the establishment of the factories, all newly arrived female prisoners were initially accommodated there before being allocated as assigned servants.  Female convicts in transit between assignments were often sent back to the factory to be temporarily housed and pregnant servants were returned to give birth and undergo subsequent punishment for their pregnancy.  Other women were sent to the factory as punishment for breaking the rules and regulations of the Convict Department and therefore were guilty of offences (Maxwell-Stewart, 2007, notes).
 
Both the new Parramatta Female Factory and Cascades Female Factory are the only sites which retain any relevant visible fabric (Maxwell-Stewart, 2006). Remnants of the original perimeter wall, and two outbuildings of the new Parramatta Female Factory survive within the modern Cumberland Hospital (Kerr quoted in Casella, 2002, p27).  
 
The Parramatta, Eagle Farm and Port Macquarie sites are all known to have some remaining archaeological evidence dating from the female factory periods (Department of Tourism Arts and the Environment, 2006a).  The sites at Cascades and Ross both have considerable extant archaeological resources.  Recent archaeological work at Cascades has revealed that subsurface remains are far more extensive than previously thought (Kostoglou, 2006). At Ross, the archaeological remains have been unaltered by any further development since the convict period (Department of Tourism Arts and the Environment, 2006a).
 
Cascades Female Factory operated as a female factory for the longest period in the colony (1828-1856). It is the site with the most complete visible fabric, with substantial parts of the walls of Yards 1, 3 and 4 still extant.  It is these walls which best demonstrate the living conditions of convict women.   The matron’s cottage (c.1850) in Yard 4 south also remains substantially intact (Maxwell-Stewart, 2006).  The substantial extant visible factory remains, together with its extensive archaeological and documentary evidence, makes Cascades Female Factory the pre-eminent place which tells the female convict story, and the story of their children.
  
The importance of Cascades Female Factory is underscored by the number of convict women (and their children) who experienced confinement within its walls.  More than half of the 25 000 female convicts who landed in Australia came to Van Diemen’s Land. Most of these women would have experienced Cascades Female Factory at one time or another either as a place of reception from ships, a place of punishment, or a hiring depot (Frost cited in Department of Tourism Arts and Environment, 2006a).
 
Cascades Female Factory has outstanding heritage value to the nation against Criterion (b). 
 
(c) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia's natural or cultural history;
 
The nominator made a number of claims against this criterion
1. The highly integral archaeological resources preserved at CFFHS offers a unique opportunity for material culture research to provide an eloquent insight into the convict experience.
2. In combination, the oral tradition, documentary evidence, collections, structures and archaeological features at Cascades Female Factory have highly significant potential for community education. 
 
These claims are addressed in the following analysis.
 
Analysis.
The nominator’s claims are supported.  The remaining fabric and the archaeological resource across all yards at the Cascade Female Factory provide a unique insight into several phases of the female convict experience.  This is further enhanced by the items in the matron’s cottage collection and the archaeological collection. 
 
The records held by the Archives Office of Tasmania meticulously document every aspect of the life of each convict in the system, and have provided the basis for research into a wide range of historical topics related to the convict period, as well as genealogical research into family origins.  It is listed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register (http://www.amw.org.au/items/017/citation.htm).  
 
In combination, the documentary evidence, collections, structures and archaeological features at Cascades Female Factory have significant potential to yield valuable information which would increase the understanding of the lives of women convicts and their children. 
 
Cascades Female Factory has outstanding heritage value to the nation against Criterion (c). 
 
(d) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of (i) a class of Australia's natural or cultural places;
 
The nominator made a claim against this criterion
1. Cascades Female Factory Historic Site is an exceptional example of a 19th century  Colonial Female Convict incarceration facility in Australia, displaying the elements of convict transportation and management which formed an important part of a broader punishment, probationary and emancipation themes associated with the initial settlement of both the Australian mainland and the island of Tasmania. 
 
This claim is addressed in the following analysis.
 
Analysis

As discussed under criterion (a), female transportation formed an important part of the story of convictism.  Penal institutions directly related to the management, punishment and reform of convict women can be regarded as an important class of place.  
 
The principal characteristics of such a place encompass both the generic characteristics common to many convict sites, regardless of gender, namely incarceration and punishment; and the characteristics specific to the management of convict women.  These characteristics include the preferred form of punishment for females (solitary cells), type of work that was performed in the factories, and the management of pregnancy, birth and the raising of infants, namely the lying-in hospitals and nurseries.  These are regarded as particularly significant as their existence facilitated the early return of mothers to the convict workforce (Maxwell-Stewart, 2006).
 
Cascades Female Factory visibly demonstrates the characteristics of incarceration through the high walls surrounding the yards.  It retains archaeological evidence of both punishment, through the solitary cells and the types of work performed in the factories, for example, the washhouse.  Yard 1 contains archaeological evidence of the early nursery and hospital, while Yard 4 contains archaeological evidence of the later nursery, although some of this evidence is contained in Yard 4 (north) which is in private ownership and therefore outside the boundary of this nomination. 
 
It is considered that the ability of Cascades Female Factory to clearly demonstrate the principal characteristics of female convict institutions has been compromised by its lack of integrity.
 
Cascades Female Factory does not have outstanding value to the nation against Criterion (d).
 (e) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group;
 
The nominator made a number of claims against this criterion
1.  Cascades Female Historic Site has significant visual and historical characteristics which inspire contemporary scholarship and culture, for example learned articles and literature in journals, seminars, performances and art installations both on site and performed elsewhere.
2.  CFFHS is an outstanding case of an historic place whose melancholy character enhances its social and historical significance. It serves to evoke a material reflection of the Western social policy, particularly as in relates to women, in the nineteenth century. 
3.  CFFHS retains a high degree of environmental authenticity through the low density and historically cohesive nature of the surrounding residential area which presents an appropriate backdrop to Cascades Female Factory site and heightens the visitor experience.
These claims are addressed below.
 
Analysis
Cascades Female Factory has inspired considerable contemporary scholarship and cultural production.  These include learned articles and literature in journals, seminars, performances and art installations both on site and performed elsewhere. However, these works do not relate specifically to the aesthetic qualities of the place. Where there is comment on the aesthetics of the place, it is to highlight its melancholy history, which is reflected in the stark appearance of the remaining walls, and the aspect of the place and its location, which is often bleak.   Other convict places are more renowned for their melancholy aesthetics and these include Port Arthur, actively promoted internationally at the time as a ‘hell on earth’ (Australian Heritage Database, Port Arthur Historic Site), and Norfolk Island, also internationally infamous for its convict horrors.
 
The low density and historically cohesive nature of the surrounding residential area is an appropriate backdrop to Cascades Female Factory site which heightens the visitor experience. The presence of Mount Wellington and the adjacent Hobart rivulet provide an environment very reminiscent of those depicted in mid 19th century illustrations of the female factory. Likewise the 19th and early 20th century housing provide an additional but sympathetic addition to the contemporary vista surrounding the site. Collectively these elements ensure that Cascades Female Factory retains a high degree of authenticity. 
 
Mount Wellington provides an imposing backdrop to Cascades Female Factory. It was examined as part of the Identifying Inspirational Landscapes project (Crocker and Davies, 2005, p56).  This study examined both the landscape characteristics and the artistic associations of Mount Wellington.  The latter, while commenting on various works of art which include depictions of Mount Wellington, did not reference any that included Cascades Female Factory.
 
Cascades Female Factory does not have outstanding value to the nation against Criterion (e).
 
(f) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period;
 
The nominator made a number of claims against this criterion
1.  Cascades Female Factory begun c. 1828, is the oldest prison designed, purpose built and administered solely for women which retains substantial significant built and archaeological fabric.
2.  CFFHS contains archaeological evidence of a range of convict cell types (flanking, single and alternating cells) varying greatly in design. The flanking cell types are particularly rare. 
 
These claims are addressed in the following analysis.
 
Analysis
Cascades Female Factory, given its continual nature of adaptation and expansion, does not represent a coherent technical or creative achievement and therefore the nominator’s claims are not supported.  Of the many people associated with its various phases of construction, only Colonial Architect John Lee Archer is of possible significance.  He oversaw the conversion of the distillery and associated constructions, including a chapel, staff quarters and solitary cells.  These are now only archaeological remains, and were not considered to be particularly notable for their technical or creative achievement (Smith, 2006).
 
While the flanking cells used for solitary confinement in Yard 1 are rare in the history of prison design (Kerr,1984) they are not considered to be of outstanding national significance. 
 
Cascades Female Factory does not have outstanding value to the nation against Criterion (f).

(g) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons;
 
The nominator made a number of claims against this criterion
1.  CFFHS is of considerable social significance to Tasmania’s contemporary Aboriginal community through an association with ‘Truganini’, which is highly significant regarding race relations in Tasmanian and greater Australian contact history.
2.  CFFHS is a nationally significant symbol of Australia’s female and child convict past, an important area often trivialised within the colonial penal system.
3.  The site reflects much about gender in colonial society and hence is of great social significance to contemporary Australian women and feminists.
 
The association of the site with Trugernanner/ (Truganini) is significant in what it reflects of race relations in Tasmanian and greater Australian contact history (see discussion under criterion (h)). This association is of considerable social significance to Tasmania’s contemporary Aboriginal community.  The outstanding heritage value of this association to the nation has not been established.
 
The protection of what remains of Cascades Female Factory demonstrates the growing interest and scholarship in Australian women's history.  This interest was the catalyst for the significance of the site being recognised by the community, and later by governments, in the 1970s, leading to the purchase of Yard 1 in 1976.  
 
Since that time, interest in Cascades Female Factory, and what it represents of the convict experience of women and children, has grown.  The site is of great social significance to contemporary Australian women, researchers and feminists. This is demonstrated by the enthusiasm shown for Cascades Female Factory Historic Site by women’s research, support and social organisations and networks both at a state and national level. For example the National Council of Women of Australia has formed a Committee for the Conservation of the Female Factory at Cascades. 
 
With the acquisition of Yard 3 in 1999 and the matron’s Cottage in Yard 4 south in 2003, the Female Factory Historic Site (FFHS) Ltd was formed. The organisation is a not-for-profit public company, and all the directors are volunteers.  The site is staffed by a dedicated team of volunteers. 
 
The Female Factory Research Group is a sub-committee of the FFHS Board.  It is a community based research group, and its monthly meetings include the formal presentations of female convict research going on throughout the community and at the University of Tasmania. The University’s Centre for Colonialism and its Aftermath, an interdisciplinary research centre, is a collaborative partner. These structural connections into the community and into the academic world have begun to link a wide range of interested people by whom the historic site is valued.
 
The Female Factory Research Group is undertaking an extensive database project, using, amongst other sources, the convict records from the Archives Office of Tasmania, which have recently been included on the Australian register of the UNESCO Memory of the World. This database has for the first time tapped into the wide-flung network of family historians who are keen to contribute documents and stories about their female convict forebears, and who see in the site an iconic ‘place’.  The subsequent development of a website has encouraged thousands of email requests for information from the database, as well as continuing interest in contributing to it. 
 
A ‘Female Factory Muster’, organised by the Female Factory Research Group was held as a bicentennial project funded by the state of Tasmania. The ‘muster’ attracted more than a thousand people, primarily but not exclusively from Tasmania. The event included the performance of a play about female convict experience; the launch of the first site-specific visitors’ guide; and the launch of the Female Family Founders’ Database. 
 
The public awareness of the heritage values at the Cascades Female Factory continues to grow through an Arts program run by the Female Factory Historic Site Ltd. which aims to interpret the site in an innovative manner. Various mediums have been explored over a period of time, including instrumental recitals, art installations and exhibitions, drama and a re-creation of the arrival of the convict ship, Harmony, in January 1829.
 
Cascades Female Factory has outstanding heritage value to the nation against Criterion (g). 
 
(h) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia's natural or cultural history;
 
The nominator made a number of claims against this criterion
1.  CFFHS is a site of major significance in the history of Australian women as it represents many aspects of women’s history. Both the fabric and the operation of the institutions which once operated on the site tell the story of the central relationships that made up the female convict experience.
2.  The interment of the Tasmanian Aboriginal woman ‘Truganini’ in Yard 1 for a period of two years links that part of CFFHS to post contact Aboriginal history and the less savory practices associated with 19th century British scientific profession and its impact on Indigenous Australia.
3.  Aspects of the social history of women in early Australian colonial society are highlighted by the story of Mary Hutchinson (neé Oakes) who was matron of the Cascade Female Factory from 1832 to 1851.
4.  Yard 1 of the CFFHS was designed by the noted Colonial Architect John Lee Archer. Archaeological investigations have revealed that his ground plan design was in fact implemented and the surviving sub surface archaeology of Yard 1 admirably expresses this.
5.  CFFHS also had further associations between the Cascade Female Factory and noted personages in Tasmanian and Australian history including Lieutenant Governor Sir John Franklin, Lady Jane Franklin, Sir Eardley Wilmot and Captain William Denison.
 
Claim 1 has been addressed in both criterion (a) and criterion (g).  The following claims are addressed in the following analysis.
 
Analysis
The remains of Trugernanner (Truganini) were interred in Yard 1 for a period of two years prior to their removal.   Trugernanner/Truganini was regarded as being the last full-blood Tasmanian, or Tasmanian woman, but this significance has been more recently contested, including by Tasmanians of Aboriginal descent.   Cascades Female Factory does not have a special association with her life or works, but rather the interment and removal of her remains, which is perhaps more representative of the life and works of some in the 19th century scientific profession.  This association could also be said to be represented by the Tasmanian Museum, where Trugernanner/Truganini’s skeleton was on display between 1904-47.  Trugernanner/Truganini’s life and works are better associated with the Bruny Island mission, with the settlement at Flinders Island and with her traditional country around Oyster Cove (Ryan and Smith 1976).
 
Mary Hutchinson (neé Oakes) was matron of the Cascade Female Factory from 1832 to 1851. Her life story is one which demonstrates the social history of women in early Australian colonial society including a childhood spent as daughter of the Superintendent at the Parramatta Female Factory; experience as a Methodist Missionary on Tonga in 1826 –28, the loss of six of her children during infancy, and (following her long and controversial stint at Cascades Female Factory) an appointment in charge of the Launceston Female Factory until 1854 when she retired (transportation to Van Diemen’s Land having ceased in 1853).  While the contribution of Mary Hutchinson could be considered to be of state significance, it is not regarded as being of outstanding national significance.
 
Yard 1 was designed by the noted Colonial Architect John Lee Archer. It is, however, except for the yard walls, archaeological remains.   Significant extant Archer designed buildings in Tasmania include Anglesea Barracks and Parliament House (originally Customs House) in Hobart, Richmond Gaol and Ross Bridge (Smith, 2006). 
 
There are further associations between the Cascade Female Factory and noted personages in Tasmanian and Australian history including Lieutenant Governor Sir John Franklin, Lady Jane Franklin, Sir John Eardley Eardley-Wilmot and Captain William Denison.  While Eardley-Wilmot (Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land 1843-1846) and Denison (Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land 1846-1855, Governor-General of the colonies 1855- 1861) presided over Cascades Female Factory, there is no strong evidence to suggest that this role was anything but administrative, nor that they took a particular interest in its operations (Roe, 2006, Currey, 2006).
 
Sir John Franklin’s contribution to the administration of convicts is perhaps better characterised by Darlington, the probation station on Maria Island, as Franklin was responsible for establishing the probation system to replace the assignment system (Brand 1990).  The probation system was a major feature of the convict system in Australia. 
 
Lady Jane Franklin, despite professing a strong interest in the welfare of female convicts, is not believed to have had much interaction with Cascades Female Factory (Rayner, 2005, p.165).   She is perhaps better represented by ‘Acanthe’, also known as Lady Franklin Museum, which is an extant classical temple in the Old Colonial Grecian style, built in the Lenah Valley near Hobart in 1843  under the sponsorship of Lady Franklin, and intended for use as a museum and cultural centre (Australian Heritage Database: Lady Franklin Museum). 
 
Cascades Female Factory does not have outstanding value to the nation against Criterion (h).
 
(i) the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance as part of Indigenous tradition.
 
The nominator made this claim against this criterion
1. Cascades Female Factory Historic Site is not nominated to the National Heritage List under this criteria at this time, although the site’s Aboriginal heritage values may be found to have significance at a National level in the future. 
 
Cascades Female Factory Historic Site was not nominated to the National Heritage List under this criterion.  
 
There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate the Aboriginal stories or traditions associated with Cascades Female Factory are different to Aboriginal creation and post-contact stories associated with other landscapes in Australia.
 
Cascades Female Factory does not have outstanding value to the nation against Criterion (i).

History:
The Historical Overview is drawn from a number of sources including Shaw (1966), Hirst (1983), Daniels (1998), Robinson (1993) and Raynor (2005).  The subsequent description of the historical physical development of Yards 1, 2 and 3 at Cascades facility is mostly drawn from various reports by Kostoglou (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006). All of the information in this section relies heavily on Scripps and Hudspeth (1992), Scripps (2000) and Rayner (2005). 
 
Overview
 
The term ‘Female Factory’ applied to buildings managed by the colonial government where Australia’s convict women were sent awaiting assignment, and for reform and punishment. Australia is the only country in the world which administratively dealt with women convicts in this manner.
 
Women Convicts
Australia is one of the few places where large numbers of women were transported as convicts.  During the period of convict transportation, some 25 000 women were transported (Raynor 2005:p23) which represents about 15 to 17 per cent of the total convict population.  Of these 12 500 were transported to Van Diemen’s Land and two thirds of these landed after transportation to NSW ceased in 1840,  most were transported for petty theft (History of Tasmania, p131).
 
From the First Fleet, women convicts were assumed to be most useful as wives, mothers and domestic servants.  The work required of them by either private master or the government was for domestic labour and they were assigned for this purpose. While there were individual men willing to take them, the colonial authorities did not need to make systematic arrangements for them nor provide opportunities for them to engage in public labour.  However, the numbers of female convicts began to increase.  From 1793 to 1 800, only 1 234 male and 564 female convicts landed at Sydney.  For the next six years 2 364 and 706 females disembarked (Shaw 1966, p70).  Along with increased numbers, the colonial authorities were concerned about what to do with them and the moral threat they represented in society.  During this time, “official comment continued to centre on the uselessness of the labour of women convicts, their lack of economic value to NSW and their continual drain on the colonial expenditure.  All complaints were supported directly or indirectly by the ‘evidence’ of their flagrant immorality”  (Robinson 1993, p221).  In 1798, Governor Hunter attempted to regulate the labour of women assigned as domestic servants and Governor King established the first female factory in 1804 at Parramatta where women made rope, spun and carded wool and wove cloth (Parramatta cloth).  The building consisted of a single long room with a fireplace at one end for the women to cook on but failed to contain sleeping quarters which meant that women sought shelter elsewhere.  The Reverend Samuel Marsden saw the female factory as sanctioning prostitution and contributing to the crime rate and general depravity of the society in Parramatta.  In response, the colonial authorities eventually built a new factory which ‘was a closed institution where women worked and slept and where they were kept from all outside influence and temptation’ (Hirst, 1983, p17).  Work on the factory commenced in 1818 but was not completed until 1821 despite Governor Macquarie asserting that it was ‘particularly Necessary for keeping those Depraved Females at Work within Walls, so as in some Degree to be a Check upon their Immoralities and disorderly Vicious Habits’ (quoted in Shaw 1966, p101). 
 
The authorities meant many things by immoralities and vicious habits.  Convict women however played a significant role as mothers/procreators.  MacNab and Ward found that in the first 30 years of the colony, “approximately 72.8 per cent of children were of convict-emancipist parentage compared to those children of one or more free (non-convicted) parents.  Since many of the children ascribed the military establishment, civil officials and settlers were born of convict women, the proportion is probably closer to 80 per cent”. Reference(p298)
 
Female Factories
The first female factory was intended for women unfit for domestic service and women under punishment, however Governor King, in order to address claims of depravity and abandonment, insisted that female convicts on arrival to the colony be taken to the factory wherein the best behaved are selected and applied for by settlers and the ‘incorrigible’ left within the factory.  This would set the multifunctional purpose of female factories throughout the colonies – operating as places of work, places of punishment, hiring depots and places of shelter for women between assignments, sick, infirm or pregnant.  “The female factories had to be all things to all women who came under government control or judicial management …the female factories were expected to handle every other case calling for an institutional response for female convicts.” (Raynor 2005: p133).  
 
Although originally designed as manufactories to produce goods to assist the colonies (hence the name), the female factories became an all purpose institution for the management of convict women.  There is no equivalent institution for convict men who could be housed in convict barracks, gangs, private quarters and later at probation stations and penitentiaries.  
 
The female factory became an essential requirement of the development of new settlements.  Over time, female factories were established at Parramatta, Newcastle, Hobart, George Town, Cascades, Moreton Bay, Port Macquarie, Bathurst, Launceston, Eagle Farm and Ross.   In 1810, Surveyor-General John Oxley called for ‘a Well regulated Factory’ for Van Diemen’s Land because “It is well known that the greater part of the Women Convicts have from their Youth been brought up in every scum of wickedness, destitute of Industry, unable from Ignorance to work, even if they possessed the inclination to render themselves useful.  It will be evident that the Task of reclaiming and bringing into habits of Industry such Characters will not be an easy one, and that it will not be aided or assisted in the smallest degree by the endeavours and disposition of Women themselves.  To suffer such wretches to be let loose on society without any restraint would be a serious injury to the quiet and well disposed among them, and that any mode of employing them would be preferable to such an alternative”  (As quoted in Daniels1998, p108).  After his appointment to Van Diemen’s Land in 1817, Governor Sorrell insisted on the establishment of a female factory before he would accept large numbers of convict women from NSW.  
 
Punishment and Reform
The emphasis was on the reform of the female convict through work and constant supervision, ideas which were articulated by Elizabeth Fry when she wrote to the Under Secretary of the Colonies in 1823 requesting a separate institution for female convicts in Hobart Town, under the control and guidance of a respectable matron with part of the building set aside for schooling (Daniels, 1980, p110).  The possibility of reformation meant that women could respectably rejoin society and this was important because in Van Diemen’s Land in the 1820s men outnumbered women by ten to one.  This situation was felt by colonial authorities to require remedying.  In 1827, Governor Arthur purchased the Cascade distillery and remodelled it for the reception and confinement of women. In 1828 it received approximately 100 women.  It was located relatively remote from Hobart Town with a view to removing the convicts from the negative influences and temptations of the town and in turn to prevent the women from corrupting the morals of the town's men.   However, its location in an area of damp swamp land contributed greatly to the sickliness and sufferings of its inhabitants.
 
At first Cascades Female Factory consisted of one large yard containing staff quarters, convict dormitories, the chapel, 12 solitary cells, nursery, hospital, kitchen, and separate areas for punishment class, crime class and hiring class.  Later, it was incrementally expanded until it became five yards, with increasing specialisation between the yards.
 
Place of Suffering
Cascades Female Factory quickly became notorious for lack of industry, overcrowding, disease, high birth rate and high mortality.   The number of female convicts in Van Diemen’s Land increased from 725 in 1828 to more than 1 600 in 1832 (Kippen p 2).  The majority of convict women arriving during this time would have passed through Cascades Female Factory either on the way to being assigned, as inmates serving their sentence, on return from assignment or when pregnancy prevented them working in domestic service.   Colonial authorities did not respond to this influx by expanding or supplementing the existing facilities.  Instead the government made it an offence to have an illegitimate child and their mothers were sent to crime class for six months once their children were weaned (and this was decreed to be at six months).  The law did not prevent pregnancy but lead to further overcrowding.  The appointment of Edward Bedford as the medical officer at Cascades Female Factory saw the colonial authorities were left in no doubt of the appalling conditions with Bedford requesting both babies and children be removed to a Female Orphan School.  Death rates were particularly high and coronial inquests brought the conditions to the attention of the public.  
 
By 1838, there had been some 208 deaths of children within the factory out of the 794 admitted or born in the factory since its opening (Kippen (2002):  p6).  This death rate of over one in four was considerably higher that the general population and would continue throughout the entire period Cascade operated as a convict establishment.  Operating from 1828 to 1855 (when transportation was deemed to cease in Van Diemen’s Land), the factory was one of the colony’s longest running convict establishments (noting that Port Arthur did not commence operating until 1831).
 
The inquests and bad publicity associated with deaths in the factory eventually led to the nursery being relocated at various sites including a house in Liverpool Street and Dynnyrne House.  A purpose built nursery was built from 1850 in Yard 4.  An inquiry into the Convict Department by the local legislature in 1855 heard evidence that the mortality in the nursery in Cascades in 1851, 1852 and 1853 was around four times higher than mortality of children of a similar age in the general Hobart District.  Dr Edward Hall calculated that the death rates under the age of three were around 40 per cent (Kippen (2002): p8).  The Committee found that the sickliness of the children and the very high mortality rates were due to reckless negligence on the part of the Convict Department – failing to provide adequate nourishment for nursing mothers, exposure to cold, and insufficient food and clothing.  The Inquiry was highly embarrassing to the then Lieutenant Governor but at this time, the decision had been made to cease transportation and the shortcomings associated with Cascades Female Factory now became a matter for local authorities.
 
 Place of Opportunity
While the Cascade Female Factory can be seen as a place of great suffering where mothers were separated from their children at an early age, where infant mortality was excessively high and where pregnancy was considered a crime, it must also be remembered that 1 000s of women passed through the factory and many were able to establish themselves in the colony through domestic service and marriage.  The female factories, while providing constant supervision and restraint on behaviour, also provided female convicts with protection from abusive masters and shelter when sick, infirm or pregnant.  They could own property, had a right to sue and could give evidence, rights that their counterparts in England, Scotland and Ireland did not possess (Kercher 2003, p6).
 
That there were many women who did pass out of the convict system is evidenced in the study by HS Payne of 7 000 female convicts who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land between 1843 to 1853.  Payne found that over one third never served a sentence in a female factory (as quoted in Raynor 2005: p94).
 
Historians continue to debate whether female convicts had a better life than that of female prisoners in Britain, Scotland and Ireland, the evidence from places such as Cascades Female Factory is that there were benefits as well as costs.  The reasons and conditions for the success and failure of individual convict women or groups of women remains for further study.  
 
Cascades Female Factory 
 
Yard 1
 
In October 1826 the government advertised for a building able to house 40-50 convict women.  Thomas Lowes offered his distillery site and three acres of land for ₤2500.  Eventually the distillery and its entire 20 acre allotment were purchased in exchange for ₤2000 and some other government land in Newton.
 
Plans for the modification of the distillery were initially drawn up by the Colonial Architect David Lambe.  These were subsequently discarded when a new Colonial Architect, John Lee Archer, took up his post in 1827.  The conversion works took a year, and cost ₤2344.  Archer’s design included the erection of two 12 foot wide two storey wings along the eastern and western sides of the yard, and a chapel between the central distillery building and the north wall.  Other developments included a two storeyed staff quarters measuring 60x17 feet inside the main gate and a set of 12 solitary cells in the north western corner of the yard.  
 
The newly completed Yard 1 of Cascades Female Factory accepted its first 100 women transferred in December 1828 from the dilapidated Factory attached to the Hobart Gaol. In January 1829, 100 women and 33 children arrived on foot at the Female Factory directly after being disembarked from the Harmony where they had spent four months.
 
Always the administrative centre of Cascades Female Factory, Yard 1 was divided up into seven smaller walled spaces which initially represented the management of convict women in the same manner as the 5 larger yards did in 1852.  On entering through the main door women and children were catalogued in the rigorous convict records system, their belongings were removed and government clothing was issued. They were then sent into a system of punishment, hard labour and religious instruction within the confined and gloomy spaces of the Factory until they were deemed suitable for release as assigned servants.
 
Three walled spaces within Yard 1 held women according to their classification into classes. There were strict rules controlling the lives of women in each class down to the labelling of the outside of their convict clothing to designate their class. The crime class included punishments such as a week in the dark cells on bread and water, in the solitary cells picking horse hair or at the wash tub doing hard labour.
 
Also within Yard 1 were two separate spaces for the Hospital and Nursery. The hospital was regularly overcrowded with both ill and confined women. Pregnant convicts moved from the hospital to the Nursery after giving birth. The Nursery within Yard 1 was replaced by the opening of Yard 4, known as the Nursery Yard, in 1850.
 
The last space within Yard 1 was the Kitchen. Across the back and in the centre of Yard 1 were store and work rooms and also in the centre was a Chapel. Under the Evangelical beliefs of Governor Arthur (1824 to 1836) the women were mustered daily for prayers and Bible reading in the hope that this would assist in their reform. Both Arthur and the colony’s senior chaplain, the Reverend Bedford, had a dim view of the character of convict women.
 
Yard 1 was soon condemned as too small despite attempts to rectify conditions by extra rations of soap and extra coats to the walls of whitewash which was considered a means of killing germs.
 
Yard 2
 
Yard 2 was opened in 1832 to provide structures in which the hard labour of the women could be performed and in which additional solitary cells could be constructed. It became known as the ‘Washing Yard’. Other labour in the Factory included carding, spinning and weaving of wool. Yard 2 included a walled area containing a two storey range of solitary working cells where women were employed in picking old rope encrusted with salt and tar, so that the fibres could be used in caulking ships.  A hospital was added to the site in the 1840s, and in 1852, a large open washing shed was converted into a dormitory building.
 
1838 saw the replacement of the assignment system with the probation system in Van Diemen’s Land. Under this system, newly arrived women were employed for six months at sewing and spinning and were taught basic reading and writing. This was to assist in reforming their characters and to equip them for domestic service. When their six months probation period expired, prisoners with a record of good conduct were assigned to settlers. The female convicts’ conduct continued to be monitored after they were hired and misconduct could result in a sentence at the female factory, including a period in solitary confinement, an extension of the sentence or revocation of their pass.
 
Yard 3
 
Yard 3, constructed in 1845, was a gruesome testament to the Probation System. It contained 112 ‘separate apartments’ in two double storey cell blocks. Designed for ‘separate treatment’ (a regime of moral and religious instruction, education and work) under the Female Probationary System, circumstances in convict administration meant that the Yard 3 penitentiary buildings were only ever used for punishing solitary confinement.
 
Yards 1, 2 and 3 all contained small cells in which convict women were punished with solitary confinement. While male convicts were often punished with flogging, 19th century morality could not accept such punishment for women. In addition to solitary confinement other punishments for women included shaving or cutting of their hair; the wearing of heavy iron collars; and hard labour. However solitary confinement was seen as the greatest deterrent for repeat offenders. Yard 1 had the most gruesome ‘dark cells’ built into the corner of the old distillery with little ventilation.
 
When transportation of female convicts to NSW ceased in 1840, there was a substantial increase in the number of female convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land and to assist in their reform under the Probation System the Fourth Yard was constructed in 1850, and Yard 5 in 1852. 
 
Yard 4
 
Yard 4 is representative of the tragic tale of convict women and their children. Local newspapers in 1838 carried heart wrenching stories on the conditions and fate awaiting children in Yard 1.  In 1850 Yard 4 was opened as the specially designed Nursery Yard and contained a two storey building designed to house 88 women and 150 children with additional single storey buildings for kitchen, laundry, washrooms and privies. Mothers stayed with their babies here until they were weaned at between 3 and 9 months. The mothers were then returned to the other Yards of the Factory and the babies were cared for by other weaning mothers, in some cases occasionally visited by their birth mothers. They were then sentenced to six months in the Crime Class following the weaning of their babies. A high infant mortality resulted from the enforced early weaning and the unhygienic conditions at the Factory. Children who survived to 2 or 3 years of age were sent to the orphan schools in New Town on the other side of Hobart until they were claimed by their reformed mothers or were able to support themselves.
 
A wall separated the Matron’s cottage (built c.1849) and garden from the two storey Nursery and yard. It is the Matron’s cottage area which forms part of Cascades Female Factory Historic Site and also part of the National Heritage List nomination. The cottage is the sole remaining original building on the site of Cascades Female Factory. The Matron would have occupied three of the four rooms as a parlour, kitchen and bedroom. The Matron’s Cottage also acted as Factory gate lodge and included a room for ‘Messengers’ who were needed to communicate with other officials in the now extensive Factory Yards. 
 
Yard 4 was not successful in lowering the rate of infant deaths - the system of handling convict women and especially infants in the Factory was open to abuse by officials and the entire Factory was sited and designed conducive to damp conditions including little access to sunlight.  In 1851-1855 the annual age-specific mortality rates of children aged 0 to 3 years were 10 per cent for the Hobart district, and 30 per cent for the Female Factory children (Rayner, 2004, p157).
 
Yard 5
 
Yard 5 was built in 1852 as part of a final attempt to improve conditions for the female convicts. It housed women who were pass holders awaiting employment. A two storey barrack slept 212 women. It included modern ideas such as flushing water closets, the ground floor mess room also acting as a schoolroom at night, and a ‘macadamised’ surface to the yard which was superior for drainage and safety than stone flagging. 
 
With the completion of Yard 5 the Factory became a full representation of the system of categorising and penalising convict women. Discipline and hard work were the key to their reform and a reward system for god-fearing behaviour and hard work was put into place. For example compulsory night time reading was used to suppress ordinary dialogue between the inmates. Task work included washing, needlework, and wool processing.
 
The women were under constant surveillance unless locked up in a solitary cell. In addition to the Superintendent and the Matron, each division or class was controlled by a male and female officer assisted by convict 'Watchwomen'. To assist surveillance in 1851 the new superintendent J. M. May made Yard 1 an open area with only the gate lodges and Chapel retained. With the relocation of the drying frames (which when hung with sheets allowed private space for the inmates) to a space outside the Factory, Yard 2 allowed “a free inspection of the women employed in washing”. It was also used for a muster yard on Sunday mornings when the regimented and silenced convict women were lectured on the notices and rules of the establishment and on religion.
 
Other Female Factory Uses
 
After the cessation of convict transportation to Tasmania in 1853, Cascades continued to be used as a prison. In June 1856 the site was proclaimed a Gaol and House of Correction for Females, allowing the admission of 'free' women convicted locally or on remand. 
 
The Colonial Government established an official pauper establishment on the site in 1869. In the first year of operation, a boy's reformatory was established in the Third Yard, a male invalid depot in the Fourth Yard, and a female invalid depot in the Fifth Yard. There were 272 residents in total.  By the end of 1869, the 14 ex-convict 'Imperial' residents of the establishment who were supported from Imperial funds were far outnumbered by the 'Colonials'. 
 
The physically able male paupers were employed in manual labour. Their numbers were few, however, and the prison gang and the Reformatory boys did the bulk of the effective work. A few male paupers instructed the children of female paupers and prisoners. The women inmates repaired clothing and made bedding for themselves and the males did the washing. 
 
The Female Factory was closed in 1877 and it was used to house male invalids and paupers including "imperial lunatics" transferred from Port Arthur. Yard 1 became home to the male invalid depot and a Hospital for the Insane was established in the Fourth Yard. 
 
A Contagious Diseases Hospital was established in parts of the First and Second Yards in 1879. The passing of the Contagious Diseases Act 1879 and the establishment of the Hospital followed a public outcry in Hobart over the infection of Royal Navy sailors with syphilis and the feared curtailment of future naval visits. The police had power to seek out and report suspected cases of women with contagious diseases to the Superintendent of Police, who could then order a medical examination and the imprisonment and treatment of the woman for up to 12 weeks. In 1890, the Hospital for the Insane, which had been transferred to the Fourth Yard from Port Arthur in 1877, was closed down. The Contagious Diseases Hospital was then moved to the Fourth Yard and would remain until its closure in 1900. 
 
Early in 1891 the Home of Mercy moved into Cascades, taking up occupation of a cottage outside the main complex. The Home of Mercy was run by the Church of England and cared for 'all fallen women'. Maud Montgomery, wife of the Bishop of Tasmania and the mother of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, was the main moving force behind the Home. In 1895, the Home took over the management of the Lying-in Hospital. Established in 1888 as an offshoot of the Benevolent Society, poor unmarried mothers were sent to the Hospital in the Third Yard. A certified mid-wife was appointed to take charge of the hospital which was expected to receive 16-17 patients annually. Women were expected to assist if able in washing, sewing or cooking. Often, women who had been released from the Hospital were sent to the Home for reform. Overcrowding of the Home led to establishment of Hope Cottage in 1896 to take some of the overflow of women. 
 
By 1896, a large part of the complex was vacant. The Salvation Army had arrived in Hobart in December 1893, keen to extend its welfare activities in areas of need.  In November 1895 its 'Prison Gate Brigade' had opened a refuge for discharged male prisoners in the Fifth Yard, which became known as the 'Prison Gate Home'. Men were admitted straight from prison, or after a period of attempting to fend for themselves. In preparing these men for a hard-working civilian life, they were put to work on chores around the Home and the gardens, distributed bills, made mats and did carpentry. Yet space at Cascades remained under-utilised and operations came under close government scrutiny in 1897 as a result of a request for further space to accommodate a women's refuge. The decision was made to sell the site. 
 
In 1904 the Home of Mercy and Salvation Army moved to other premises as the State Government subdivided and prepared the 15-16 acre site for sale in 1904. 
 
In 1924, the buildings in Yard 1 were demolished, leaving only the external walls standing. Around 1926, two tennis courts and club rooms were constructed in Yard 1. An archaeological excavation in 2001 located part of the retaining wall for the tennis courts, which were demolished around 1960. The wall was built from sandstone blocks, which appear to have been taken from old prison buildings on the site.  In the early 1960s a wine merchant constructed a concrete besser block shed in the north-western corner of Yard 1 (the slab of which still remains) and this was joined in 1972 by a concrete besser block toilet. An engineering shed, was built in 1974 and demolished by the Tasmanian Government between 1988 and 1990.  Yard 1 was purchased by the state government in 1976 and has since been administered by the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service.   
 
When the entire site was auctioned in 1905, Yard 2 was described as having ‘cells at the rear’.  These had been demolished by the 1930s and a paint factory was erected on the site in the mid 1940s.  This was subsequently converted into a church during the 1980s, an entity which still occupies the site.
 
Yard 3 was subdivided into 2 allotments at the time of the auction of the site.  A succession of owners held title to one or both constituent allotments until 1942, when the fruit processing firm of J. G. Turner Prop. Ltd. bought the property as a case and wood storage yard.  Between 1967 and 1986 the entire yard was used as a storage depot by a succession of owners.  In 1986, Macpac Ltd acquired the yard and erected the current factory.  In 1994 it was acquired for use as a fudge factory.  In 1999/2000, the yard and its plant were acquired by the Female Factory Historic Site Ltd using Commonwealth, (Cultural Heritage Projects Program) funding.  The Female Factory Historic Site is currently managed from part of the factory, which is also sublet to generate an income stream.
 
A succession of owners occupied the former matron’s Cottage and undertook a variety of small businesses in Yard 4 until the 1930s, when the block was subdivided into four allotments.  Variations on this configuration have prevailed to the present day.  In 2003 the southern most allotment containing the only intact building remaining from the Female Factory era, the matron’s cottage and garden, was purchased by the Female Factory Historic Site Ltd through a grant from the State Government and substantial corporate sponsorship from various sources.
 
A variety of owners gradually subdivided Yard 5 into domestic housing allotments throughout the first two decades of the 20th century.  These have remained to the present day.

Condition:
Since the government divestment and sale of the entire property in 1904, the original ground plan of Cascades Female Factory Historical Site (CFFHS) has been substantially altered above the ground. A variety of private owners acquired the five yards separately.  The ensuing period of private ownership substantially altered the structural integrity of the CFFHS. Two of the five yards were to all intents and purposes obliterated above the ground (Yards 2 and 5) with the removal of all internal buildings and external walls leaving only the vacant land, which has since been developed. In the remaining three yards the bulk of the perimeter walls survived but the remaining internal buildings were lost to demolition. Only in Yard 4 was a single cottage, built to house the resident Matron overseer, retained to the present day. 
 
However, although the attrition of Female Factory related fabric was almost total above the ground, the same cannot be said for the sub surface archaeological resource. Excavation work has now been undertaken in all three yards comprising this nomination (Yards 1, 3 and 4 south).  
 
Yard 1
Buildings
There are no intact building remnants surviving above the ground in Yard 1.
 
Wall fabric
Approximately 90 per cent of the original perimeter wall fabric surrounding Yard 1 survives in a reasonable state of preservation. Ad hoc patching of the doorways and collapsed cavities occurred throughout the early/mid 20th century using unsympathetic materials (brick, concrete blocks etc.). Vulnerable sections subsequently identified in the 1992 Conservation Management Plan (Du Cros & Associates) for this yard were stabilised and conserved shortly after using original stone work bonded with a lime based mortar mix. A major potential subsidence of the front wall is currently being redressed while the relevant fabric is supported by a timber gantry.  The perimeter walls need routine maintenance to remove weed growth and concretions. The concrete capping on top of the walls is also deteriorating and will be in need of work – the level of deterioration is yet to be assessed.  
 
Sub surface archaeology
In 2000, an archaeological test excavation was initiated immediately west of the closed connecting doorway between Yards 1 and 3 (Kostoglou 2001). In association with another test excavation further north, this activity revealed that the original ground plan blueprint designed by prominent colonial architect John Lee Archer was indeed adhered to by the 1827 builders of Yard 1. Furthermore, the robust sandstone footings of all structures throughout the eastern side of the yard survive in an excellent state of preservation beneath various layers of post 1924 demolition fill.
 
Yard 3
Buildings
There are no intact building remnants surviving above the ground in Yard 3.
 
Wall fabric
Approximately 40 per cent of the original perimeter wall fabric surrounding Yard 3 survives in a reasonable state of preservation. Ad hoc patching of the doorways and collapsed cavities occurred throughout the early/mid 20th century using unsympathetic materials (brick, concrete blocks etc). Vulnerable sections subsequently identified in the 2000 Conservation Management Plan (Cripps, Davis & Associates) for this yard were stabilised and conserved shortly after using a combination of original and newly hewn stone work bonded with a traditional lime based mortar mix. The eastern perimeter wall needs routine maintenance to remove weed growth in the top course of stonework.
 
Sub surface archaeology
Excavations (Kostoglou 2001, 2002, 2002) revealed that robust sandstone footings and sub floor cavities, relating to the two banks of solitary apartments and the offices along the front (south) wall, continue to survive at depth in an excellent state of preservation beneath various layers of post demolition fill. Such integrity may also apply to remnants situated beneath the factory building in the middle of this yard. 
 
Yard 4 south
Buildings
The c1850 matron’s Cottage situated in the south east corner of Yard 4 is the sole surviving structure from the convict period.  The cottage floor plan originally consisted of four rooms heated by two double fireplaces, however later 19th century additions including two rooms were made to the eastern elevation. The surviving style and fabric of the building is otherwise exceptional. In the past year, short term conservation works including the provision of new piers for the support of floors in the eastern additions, re-painting of rooms, repointing of external brick and stone window sills and new guttering has been undertaken.
 
Wall fabric
Approximately 25 per cent of the original perimeter wall fabric surrounding Yard 4 survives in a variable state of preservation. The footings to the eastern wall (mostly in private ownership and not part of this nomination) have suffered from pilferage. A Conservation Management Plan is currently being written for the whole site and will address conservation needs for this yard. The collapse of the entrance archway adjacent to the south west corner of the matron’s cottage was prevented by being pinned internally and a steel gantry erected. Conservation of the resident timber doors in both this entrance and the internal wall between Yards 3 and 4 is to follow.
 
Sub surface archaeology
An open area excavation undertaken in 2005 revealed the robust sandstone footings and sub floor cavities relating to the sub-matron’s cottage, kitchen/laundry and Nursery apartments continue to survive at the footings level in an excellent state of preservation.  This integrity extends northwards throughout the remainder of former Yard 4 despite its separate ownership and resident structural additions throughout the 20th century (Kostoglou 2006).  
 
Matron’s cottage collection
A collation database of the matron’s cottage collection is in process. Until conservation works have been completed at the matron’s cottage, these items are housed in two localities: The matron’s cottage and Cascades Female Factory Historic Site office. 
 
Archaeological Collection
Although provenanced and tagged as part of archaeological excavation work, the collection is yet to be catalogued. Many of the items have likewise been stored according to a fabric based system where similar fabric types are stored together in order to avoid chemical reaction. Artefacts are stored in labelled bags and boxes.

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