Ross Female Factory

From the Tasmanian Government website:

Tasmanians are being given a new opportunity to explore the compelling but brutal history of female convicts in Tasmania’s northern midlands.

A $240,000 interpretation and conservation project at the Ross Female Factory has been completed, after almost three years.

The Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, Brian Wightman, said the ‘Ross Community and the story of Convictism’ project was made possible through the Tasmanian Community Fund.

The site was originally used to accommodate male convicts for hire. However, it’s particularly significant for the period between 1847 and 1854, when it was one of only five workhouses, or ‘female factories’ used for female convicts in Tasmania.

“The Ross Female Factory is a nationally significant site in the story of female convictism,” Mr Wightman said.

“Of 74,000 convicts transported to Tasmania, about 12,500 were women. At some point, most of them were incarcerated in one of the five ‘factories’,” he said.