Cascades Female Factory Historic Site

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Cascades Female Factory Historic Site Nestled in the shadow of kunanyi, are some of Australia's greatest untold stories. Discover the lives of the convict women at the Cascades Female Factory.

Tours depart daily. Australia’s most significant site associated with female convicts sits in the shadow of Mount Wellington, a short distance from the Hobart CBD. Women were incarcerated here as punishment or while waiting to be assigned. With guards, nurses and babies, up to 1000 people lived here at any one time. Discover the stories of female convicts and their children on a guided tour or experience morning tea with the matron.

14/10/2026

Could you survive six days in the dark? 🕯️

"She will spend the first time, 6 days, locked in a dark cell. The dark cells are so small, they're not much longer – or wider – than the women."

This is the third in a 5-part series about convict woman Margaret Fitzgerald and her courage, resilience and resistance.

📖 Watch the full story: youtube.com/
📷 Marcelle, Tour Guide

10/10/2026

Survival against the odds 🕊️

"We strongly encourage people to think about their resilience, their capacity as survivors."

This is the second in a 5-part series about convict woman Margaret Fitzgerald and her courage, resilience and resistance.

📖 Watch the full story: youtube.com/
📷 Marcelle, Tour Guide

06/10/2026

How do you earn the name ‘Sovereign Eater’? 👀

“She’s starting to get this reputation as the ‘Sovereign Eater’, which is exactly as it sounds.”

This is the first in a 5-part series about convict woman Margaret Fitzgerald and her courage, resilience and resistance.

📖 Watch the full story: youtube.com/
📷 Marcelle, Tour Guide

Why was Cascades chosen as the site of the Female Factory?Part of the answer was surprisingly practical: the walls were ...
29/09/2026

Why was Cascades chosen as the site of the Female Factory?

Part of the answer was surprisingly practical: the walls were already there.

The site had previously been a distillery, and its existing high walls made it an appealing and cost-effective solution when the Female House of Correction in Hobart Town became overcrowded.

But there were warnings.

The site was damp, dark, shaded by the mountain and positioned beside a rivulet known to flood. Despite these concerns, it was purchased and converted into the Cascades Female Factory, opening in 1828.

Almost two centuries later, those same environmental conditions remain an important part of understanding what life here would have been like.

Imagine seeing Hobart for the first time from the deck of a convict ship.Behind you were months at sea.Ahead was a place...
28/09/2026

Imagine seeing Hobart for the first time from the deck of a convict ship.

Behind you were months at sea.

Ahead was a place you had never seen.

For thousands of transported women, arrival in Van Diemen's Land marked an extraordinary turning point.

Their journey did not end at the waterfront.

For many, another chapter would eventually lead them to places such as Cascades Female Factory.

On World Maritime Day, we remember the voyages behind the women whose stories we tell today.

Image credit: Hobart Town, Tasmania. James Charles Armytage (1820 - 1897)

Spring in Hobart brings longer days, fresh growth and the first real sense that winter is beginning to loosen its grip.F...
25/09/2026

Spring in Hobart brings longer days, fresh growth and the first real sense that winter is beginning to loosen its grip.

For the women at Cascades Female Factory, the change of season would have been experienced very differently. The yards and surrounding landscape may have softened with new growth and warmer light, but daily routines, discipline and confinement continued within the walls.

That contrast is part of what makes the site so powerful today.

Standing at Cascades in spring, with kunanyi / Mount Wellington rising behind the site and new life appearing across the landscape, it is worth remembering the women who once looked out on the same changing season from a place they could not simply leave.

Spring changes a landscape.

History changes the way we see it.

A short journey from Hobart's waterfront takes you from the place where transported women arrived towards one of the pla...
21/09/2026

A short journey from Hobart's waterfront takes you from the place where transported women arrived towards one of the places that would become central to Tasmania's female convict story.

Today, visitors can make that journey very differently.

Cascades Female Factory sits close to the modern city but is connected to a history reaching back generations.

Come and discover the stories held within a place many Hobartians pass every day.

What can you say with fabric and thread?Join artist and craftivist Tal Fitzpatrick at the Cascades Female Factory to exp...
18/09/2026

What can you say with fabric and thread?

Join artist and craftivist Tal Fitzpatrick at the Cascades Female Factory to explore how craft can be used as a tool for social change.

Hear from Tal about her practice and the works featured in Changemakers, then try your hand at craftivism in a banner-making workshop where you’ll create your own message for change.

Saturday 26 September | 9:30 am–1:30 pm | Registration essential, book via our website.

Image: Tal Fitzpatrick / Photographer: Claudio Kirak, Art-Work Agency, 2023 / Courtesy: Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

There is something powerful about hearing a story in the place where it happened.With the Cascades Female Factory audio ...
18/09/2026

There is something powerful about hearing a story in the place where it happened.

With the Cascades Female Factory audio experience, you can move through the site at your own pace, stopping to listen, look around and consider the lives that unfolded within these walls.

There is no need to rush.

Take your time with the stories that stay with you and look more closely at the spaces around you.

Sometimes understanding history begins simply by stopping to listen.

Image Credit: From the Walker Collection W9/Ph146 :-
Reference: Tasmanian photographers 1840-1940 : a directory / by Chris Long ; edited by Gillian Winter. Hobart, Tas : Tasmanian Historical Research Association : Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 1995.

History changes when we stop talking about “convict women” and begin talking about individual women.Each had a name.Each...
16/09/2026

History changes when we stop talking about “convict women” and begin talking about individual women.

Each had a name.

Each had a life before transportation.

Each experienced the convict system differently.

The Convict Women's Tour brings those individual stories into the landscape of Cascades Female Factory, allowing us to consider the women behind the records and the lives they built in Van Diemen's Land.

Their history is part of Tasmania's history.

Address

16 Degraves Street
South Hobart, TAS
7004

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday 9:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+611800139478

Website

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