About Us

Parramatta Female Factory Precinct Association Most people don’t know where Australia’s first significant centre of industry was founded or where Australia’s first industrial action took place. Or that almost a quarter of convicts were women and where they ended up when they came ashore. Nor do they know where many generations of Forgotten Australians and the Stolen Generation experienced institutional care.   The answers are at the heart of a new effort to promote and conserve our country’s earliest major site of female convict settlement located within the North Parramatta Government Heritage area, the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct.   The Precinct is a place of significant importance in the history and culture of Australia, particularly for women. The site is located within the grounds of the Cumberland District Hospital and is currently used as offices for the NSW Institute of Psychiatry. This current function is a legacy of the site’s use as a Lunatic Asylum and Psychiatric Hospital from 1848 when the Female Factory was closed, until 1992 when the hospital moved premises. At the southern end are the grounds of the Norma Parker Centre, which has been used as an orphanage and then Girls’ Industrial School and Home from 1848 until 1986. Today it operates as a women’s correctional centre, continuing the site’s 200 year old story of women, institutionalisation and society.   We seek to raise the level of public and government awareness of the need to recognize, promote and value women’s contributions and heritage and designate this first site of female settlement as the ideal location for the establishment of a National Women’s Heritage Centre.   Our Patron   Professor Kerry Carrington   Currently Chair in Sociology at the University of New England, Professor Kerry Carrington is widely regarded as an expert in the field of juvenile justice with a large number of international publications on topics of youth culture and delinquency, girls and juvenile justice, young men and sexual violence and Indigenous girls and juvenile justice.  She has published extensively in international journals and is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Sociology, and Public Space: the Journal of Law and Social Justice.   Our Supporters   Aftercare Resource Centre (ARC), UTS Shopfront, Rev Bill Crews Exodus Foundation, Senator Andrew Murray, CLAN, CREATE, National Foundation of Australian Women (NFAW), Centre for Leadership for Women (CLW), Woman About Hay, Parramatta City Council, Jessie Street National Women's Library (JSNWL), Manning Clark House (MCH), Ngiyampaa National Elders Council Aboriginal Corporation.   Our Commitment   We are committed to collecting, researching and sharing an understanding of the history of the site To encourage the study of Australian women’s history by establishing an exhibition space, library, archives and resource centre. To promote the preservation, proper organization and publication of authentic historical records. To acquire and preserve objects and materials that illuminate the history of Women and the Forgotten Australians. To undertake historical research into people, buildings, events or issues relevant to the Precinct and to participate in activities aimed at promoting and/or commemorating them. To promote the dissemination of information by lectures, seminars, workshops, excursions, cultural events and exhibitions. To publish relevant newsletters, journals and other material. Get Involved   Would you like to get involved in promoting the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct's history and heritage?   Perhaps you could contribute to the PFFP's research or cultural activities? or assist in our archive or site interpretation projects?   Please give this project your support contact us by email: info@parragirls.org.au or write to PFFP PO Box 2028 North Parramatta NSW Australia 1750.