Cascades Female Factory shines at the Tasmanian Tourism Awards

Cascades Female Factory 2016 Photograph (c) Alastair Bett

Volunteers and staff at the Cascades Female Factory were honoured at being named Tasmania’s best Cultural Tourism Attraction at the Tasmanian Tourism Awards in Hobart on Friday night.

The World Heritage-listed site has been a long standing attraction in South Hobart with dramatised tours and innovative new interpretation of the footprints of the yards and buildings that once housed thousands of female convicts.

Chair of the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (PAHSMA) Board, Professor Sharon Sullivan AO said, “We are immensely proud of this award as it recognises not only the significance of the site to heritage tourism in Tasmania but also the hard work and dedication of our conservation professionals, volunteers and staff who all help to deliver an incredible experience for our visitors.”

“Port Arthur is famous for its stories of convicts, but that is really only the male side of the story. More than 7,000 women convicts are known to have spent time at the Female Factory, in addition to many infants and children.”

Cascades Female Factory will join the other Tasmanian winners to represent the State at the National Tourism Awards to be held in Darwin on 24 February 2017.

For more information about the Cascades Female Factory go to www.femalefactory.org.au.

Background:

The Cascades Female Factory is one of the eleven places that make up the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property, which was added to the World Heritage List in 2010. In Tasmania, New South Wales, Western Australia and on Norfolk Island, the sites combine to tell the epic story of Australia’s convict heritage. Each site in the listing represents a different aspect of the convict system. They have been selected as the most significant examples in Australia’s history of forced migration. The Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (PAHSMA) assumed management responsibility for the Cascades Female Factory in 2011.
Jennifer Fitzpatrick, Marketing and Communications Manager