On Tuesday we were lucky to join 5/6 Cherry on an excursion to the Female Factory in Hobart.

This was a great way to tie up our early settlement HASS unit.  Or so I thought, with renewed interest we now have more questions, wonderings and stories to investigate.  What happened to these women?  Why were women in general treated so differently to men?  Why is there so little of the buildings remaining?  How could the ground really be 1.5metres higher now than in the factory times?

Students engaged with stories of our early convict women and wondered at their lives, their crimes, their futures.

We stood in the footprint of the smallest solitary cells in all of Australia.  How did the women pass the time in this dark silence?

The Women’s factory ran from 1828 to 1856 and during that time housed over 7000 females with up to 1100 at any time.  2166 babies were born during this time, with a high mortality rate, very few survived through to toddlerhood.  Those who did were then transferred to an orphanage in Hobart.

It was cold and damp, with inadequate food, clothes or hygiene.  Women worked long hard hours and were trained for jobs in the settlement.

We marvelled at how different life in Hobart is now – especially for females.

Mrs Bec Witts