From mid-April through to the end of May there have been many events part of the “Australian Heritage Festival,” with NSW leading the way with events across the state from Bathurst to Bowral and from Leura on the Blue Mountains to the banks of the Hawksbury River at Spencer. However, few can rival Heritage Day at Parramatta North Precinct, the home of several of Australia’s most historically important buildings, including the “Parramatta Female Factory.”
The “Australian Heritage Festival” is coordinated by the National Trust of Australia and supported by the NSW Government through Heritage NSW and various local groups such as the “Parramatta Female Factory Friends,” an organisation dedicated to protecting the Female Factory for future generations, i’s ongoing maintenance and restoration and to have it listed under World heritage.
The festival took place on 13 May, where guides were there to offer free tours of the buildings, or if you prefer to look around yourself, there was also a range of stalls offering a variety of goods and foods, creating a market-type atmosphere. Coupled with live music and a small enclosure where the children, and more than a few adults, could pat some common farm animals, located on the courtyard of the sandstone structure of the Female factory, and there’s a perfect day that offers something for everyone.
The factory itself has a heritage significance comparable to that of Fort Denison or the Hyde Park barracks and cannot be understated, yet few know the story of the Factory, even though countless Australians may have had an ancestor who stayed there.
Built using convict labour from local sandstone, the building was completed in 1821, and although named as a factory, it was much more: it acted as a place for convict women to be assigned, a marriage bureau, a prison, a hospital and an asylum, as well as a working factory producing cloth such as linen and wool and was the site of the nation’s first manufactured exports. Work allocation of the women included spinning, knitting, weaving straw plaiting, washing and various other duties.
Gay Hendriksen, President of the Parramatta Female Factory Friends, shared a piece history of the Female factory and explained how their organisation was established, and why:
“It started because the government was going to put a computer data room into the third-class sleeping quarters,” said Gay, adding that it was to protect it for all Australians and to ensure public access as “it’s their history and belongs to them.”
What is also of significance is that Australia’s first industrial action took place there in 1827, when the women rioted due to a cut in their rations and poor living conditions in general. By 1842, there were 1,203 women along with their children accommodated within the factory, but with the ending of convicts being transported to the colony in 1848, the factory was re-assigned as an asylum for “invalids” and the “insane,” terms which are banned from the English language nowadays.
Parramatta member of Parliament, Dr Andrew Charlton is a supporter of World Heritage Listing for the site, stating, “the community has been advocating for World Heritage Listing for the Parramatta Female Factory for years, and Labor is determined to see this site added to the list.”
Donna Davis, Member for Parramatta and previous Parramatta Lord Mayor, says, “Parramatta Female Factory is one of the most historically and culturally significant sites in Australia, so it’s vital we do whatever we can to protect this piece of women’s history.”
