Bothwell day 3

We have decided that as we are only 60kms from Hobart we will drive there to visit the Historical Cascades Women’s Factory, this place has been semi restored and set up to show the conditions that the convict women had to endure. They were kept in very harsh conditions worked for 12 hours per day fed a very poor diet and punished for the slightest mistakes, it they were good and worked hard they were deemed suitable for being loaned out to settlers as free labour but were often raped by their new masters and when they fell pregnant were sent back to the Factory to be punished for not being able to work, which entailed spending time in solitary confinement this also was the punishment for any type of sickness, if they couldn’t work then it was off to the cells.
The only original building is the matrons house all the rest were destroyed during a bushfire.
The buildings have not been rebuilt but the various areas have been represented by using floor markings and a couple metal structures to indicate the sizes ie the cells and the toilet.
All in all it was a very enlightening day today.Read more