Parramatta Female Factory Precinct

Ms TANYA GADIEL (Parramatta—Parliamentary Secretary) [5.51 p.m.]: In 1871, just 137 years ago, the population of Australia was around two million, with just over 500,000 living in New South Wales and just under 140,000 living in Sydney. Outside Sydney lay Parramatta, first explored by Europeans on an expedition headed by Captain Arthur Phillip in April 1788. Phillip identified a location on the curve of the Parramatta River marked by a crossing of flat stones. That is where he envisaged a jail town and farm—a place that through industry and sacrifice became the crucible within which much of Australia was born. Phillip named this location Rose Hill, but it was not long until the name Parramatta was adopted—a variation of Burramattagal after the local Aboriginal people. To my knowledge, this is the first European settlement location named after the indigenous people of this country.

Nearby on a rise overlooking the river stands Australia's oldest public building—our first Government House, and home to the first 12 Governors of the colony. It is also the place where the Burramattagal fished the waters of the Parramatta River. They marked it as a woman's place—a place where the salt waters of the harbour blended with the freshwaters of the river, a place for ceremony, for matrimony and for the gathering of tribes. Back in the early days of the colony the river marked the divide between those who ruled and those who were ruled. On the opposite shore stood the town jail, the female factory and a government orphanage for Roman Catholic children, which would later become the Parramatta Girls Home. We have become aware of the appalling way in which those young women were treated, which is a national disgrace.

Most people are unaware that almost 20 per cent of convicts were women and that on arrival all unassigned women were taken to Parramatta. Even assigned women would invariably spend time at the factory. For many it offered a safe refuge. For others it offered a marriage bureau, a hospital for the sick, destitute or nursing mothers, a place of employment or a place of incarceration and punishment. In many ways the female factory was an Australian variation on the English workhouse where women and their children lived, worked and served out their sentences. The women who lived there were the founding mothers of this nation, but instead these women were betrayed as damned whores, incorrigibles and wanton creatures beyond redemption. However, it was they who spun the first fleece and produced the first woven cloth in Australia. All this took place within the high walls of the Parramatta female factory. The precinct has been tainted with a legacy of immorality, criminality and, in the latter part of its history, insanity. This insidious legacy has had a significant impact on later generations confined to the precinct's institutions.

For the convict women and for the later generations of institutionalised kids—the thousands of forgotten Australians—no place is dedicated to their memory. It is time that all these Australians and the site were acknowledged. The Parramatta female factory is a site of memory and of conscience. It could be a world-class site of new cultural expressions by linking the rich narratives of the site's past to a multicultural, intergenerational exploration of art and new media, thereby increasing tourism opportunities and delivering real economic, social and cultural benefits to the region. It could also tell the story of the convicts in Australia. Its designation would affirm that we have moved forward, that we are a nation that values equality and that we strive for reconciliation with our past and the traditional owners of the land.

I have become aware of a rumour that this site will be used to house rapists and paedophiles. I believe that to be unfounded and I have been given assurances by the Attorney General that it is not true. Within Parramatta there is significant community opposition to this proposal, if indeed it is a proposal. A campaign has been initiated by the former Parramatta girls to designate this and the adjacent female factory site as a living memorial to women and the forgotten Australians. I completely support their campaign and thank Bonney Djuric for bringing this matter to my attention. I will work with her, the Parramatta girls, the Parramatta community and this Government to ensure that her dream becomes a reality. I thank Bonney for her passion. She is a wonderful woman. I thank her for spending so much time with me and for telling me about this story and her vision for this site.