Margaret Cusack

It was another early start today as we headed into Hobart to get to the Salamanca Markets. 19 years ago we finished our stay in Hobart and bought our salt and pepper grinders here - still the same markets, but a lot more people!
After spending what felt like the National debt of a small nation, we walked back to the Penitentiary Prison for a tour.
When we arrived we looked around for a while before being let into one of the former wings of the Church, which was converted to the Supreme Court of Tasmania.
Sitting in what were the witnesses boxes our guide Angela, asked if anyone had convict ancestors. I put my hand up and said that I also had an ancestor who had worked at the prison.
She then stated to talk of some of the convicts and how they suffered and the impact upon their life expectancy and then said that her grandmother’s grandmother was a convict named Margaret Cusack and she lived to 103. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather. I just said “we’re related”.
After the tour we spoke for a while and exchanged details so we can keep in touch and can find out more - her elderly aunt has done some family history work.
My convict heritage knowledge only started 19 years ago when I dispelled the family myth of being related to Charles Dickens. Interestingly Angela said that her family lived opposite a penal facility (Cascades maybe) for 20 years unbeknownst to them that Margaret had been a convict.
We wanted to make the tour at the Cascades Female Factory so had to Uber back to our car, grab some lunch at the markets on the run through and race to the Cascades Female Factory.
Not much remains of the original buildings - demolished as part of the push to remove the convict stain. Three of the five yards still exist with the original high boundary walls but the remainder are marked out with various materials, including the tiny cells that women like Margaret lived in.
The stories we heard were for the earlier days of the place, Margaret arriving in the later years. She had a child whilst in the Factory, who is listed on a wall of children born in the factory. The overwhelming majority of babies died - Stephen Cusack was one of the exceptions and live until his 70s.
After Cascades we drove up Mt Wellington just in time to catch sunset.
Dinner was at the Cascade Brewery.Read more