Parramatta Female Factory Precinct: Here's our hidden history

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Welcome to the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct blog where you will find information and news about Australia's foremost historic site associated with women and children.

Where is the Precinct located?

The Precinct is located in the heart of Western Sydney about 3kls north of the Parramatta CBD on approximately 56 acres of land bounded by the Parramatta River, Fleet Street, New Street and the Parramatta Gaol…google map

What historic sites does the Precinct include?

The historic institutions of the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct represent two adjoining sites namely, the convict Female Factory (1821 -1847), later the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum and now Cumberland Hospital (1847 onwards) and the Roman Catholic Orphan School (1841 - 1886), later the Parramatta Girls Home (1887 - 1983) and now the Norma Parker Centre – together these sites feature more than 72 buildings, built landforms, structural features, intact sub-floor deposits, open deposits and scatters and individual artifacts.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Here's our hidden history

Federal Minister Tony Burke who's portfolio covers heritage, did not bring promises to protect Parramatta's colonial past when he visited the city last week....... "What I have seen here today is one of the best kept secrets in Sydney....and I was not across the extent to which the Australian story lives here in Parramatta".......more Here's our hidden history

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Landmarks in social history

With the end of convict transportation to the NSW colony in 1840 Australians began to distant themselves from their convict origins and places such as the convict Female Factory were forgotten. It is not surprising that the Female Factory was re-adapted as a lunatic asylum - after all who but the insane would tolerate living with the memories of convictism and our penal past. Equally this was the lot of orphaned or neglected children in their confinement in the precinct's later institutions, the Roman Catholic Orphan School and later Parramatta Girls Home. The mad, bad and sad were not to be heard, nor seen.They did not matter.

In 1988 Australia celebrated its bicentenary. Australians began to find long forgotten convict ancestors. This decade brought with it major reforms in health, education, welfare and justice. The institutions of the Parramatta Female Factory were shaken up - the Parramatta Girls Home closed; the Psychiatric Hospital's were emptied out.

1997 a watershed year when the Stolen Generations Report was handed down. Australians were now confronted with the truth of injustices visited upon the aboriginal people of this country. This year also marked the introduction of the Human Rights Equal Opportunity Commission - the beginnings of equal rights for women, children and indigenous people.

In 2004 the Forgotten Australians Report was handed down. the report found that upwards and possibly more than 500,000 Australians experienced institutional or out-of-home 'care' as children in the last century. Prominent in testimonies given were accounts of the cruelty and abuse endured by girls committed to the Parramatta Girls Home and its annex, the Hay Girls Institution.

The institutions of the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct are no longer a hidden history of Australia. Please help us preserve this history.

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Friday, August 10, 2012

Here's our hidden history

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