Parramatta Female Factory and Girls' Prison.

Whippings were part of the curriculum. The custom was  carried on in the British Tradition. Parramatta Female Factory 1820s-1870s Parrametta means in aboriginal dialect "place where the eels go." BACKGROUND  The Parramatta Female Factory The Parramatta Female Factory we see today is the earliest convict women’s site in Australia still in existence. It was a Governor Macquarie initiative and a model for other convict female factories – there were 13 factories all together. It was a hospital, place of assignment to service the NSW colony, a location to request a wife, a place of secondary punishment and a factory producing colonial cloth. Of the 24,960 transported women an estimated 9,000 went through the factory system of which approximately 5,000 went through the Parramatta Female Factory If this number is multiplied by the generations and number of children, this means that an estimated 1 in 5 Australians are related the convict female factory women. The Australian spirit of tenacity, surviving  Editor's note: Australia has been a brutal  country throughout its brief history. And the brutality has hardly waned. Parramatta Girls Home Parramatta Girls Home has also been known as Parramatta Industrial School for Girls, Girls Training School Parramatta and Girls Training Home. First built by convicts in 1841, Parramatta Training School had been a brutal and cruel institution for the incarceration of young women for more than 125 years. Names like ‘Industrial’ and ‘Training School’ sound innocent enough but don’t be fooled – these were not schools as we know them but prisons where harsh and oppressive conditions were concealed under the guise of child welfare philosophies, to justify their creation.  In 1946, Parramatta Training School for Girls was re-established for the reception, detention, maintenance, discipline, education and training of young women. It then became known as Parramatta Girls’ Home but the name belied its function: it was no home. In reality, it was a prison where young girls were stripped of their dignity and liberties and punished frequently with physical force and threatened with imprisonment in Hay Girls Institution. At just sixteen, Sharyn Killens was sentenced to Parramatta Girls Home. She had committed NO crime. She was a runaway.

The entrance to Administration Parramatta Girls Gate 4 - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGPMtPzo-C48 Oct 2006 - 4 min - Uploaded by artangel22 Hidden secrets of Parramatta Girls Institution, a place where abuse and humiliations occurred on a daily basis, and its annex ... Abandon All Hope - a history of Parramatta Girls Home - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=O10ETbUE4cI16 Jul 2009 - 3 min - Uploaded by artangel22 Abandon All Hope is the first documented history of the Parramatta Girls Home - a project made possible through the ... More videos for parramatta girls home » Growing up in Parramatta Girls Homenma.gov.au/blogs/inside/.../growing-up-in-parramatta-girls-home/ 2 Mar 2011 – Maree summarises the history of the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct and her experiences at Parramatta Girls Home when she was aged 16. Jennifer My grandmother, Rebecca, was born around 1890. She lived with her tribal people, parents and relations around the Kempsey area. Rebecca was the youngest of a big family. One day some religious people came, they thought she was a pretty little girl. She was a full blood aborigine about five years old. Anyway those people took her to live with them. Rebecca could not have been looked after too well. At the age of fourteen she gave birth to my mother Grace and later on Esther, Violet and May. She married my grandfather Laurie and at the age of twenty-three she died from TB. Grandfather took the four girls to live with their Aunty and Uncle on their mother's side. Grandfather worked and supported the four girls. Mum said in those days the aboriginals did not drink. She often recalled going to the river and her Uncle spearing fish and diving for cobbler. Mum had eaten kangaroo, koala bear, turtles and porcupine. She knew which berries were edible, we were shown by her how to dig for yams and how to find witchetty grubs. My mother also spoke in several aboriginal languages she knew as a small girl. The aboriginals had very strict laws and were decent people. They were kind and had respectable morals. Even though the girls fretted for their mother they felt secure with their own people. Years later Grandfather told my mother a policeman came to his work with papers to sign. The girls were to be placed in Cootamundra Home where they would be trained to get a job when they grew up. If grandfather didn't sign the papers he would go to jail and never come out, this was around 1915. My grandfather was told he was to take the four girls by boat to Sydney. The girls just cried and cried and the relations were wailing just like they did when Granny Rebecca had died. In Sydney my mother and Esther were sent by coach to Cootamundra. Violet and May were sent to the babies' home at Rockdale. Grace and Esther never saw their sister Violet again. She died at Waterfall Hospital within two years from TB. My mother was to wait twenty years before she was to see her baby sister May again. Cootamundra in those days was very strict and cruel. The home was overcrowded. Girls were coming and going all the time. The girls were taught reading, writing and arithmetic. All the girls had to learn to scrub, launder and cook. Mum remembered once a girl who did not move too quick. She was tied to the old bell post and belted continuously. She died that night, still tied to the post, no girl ever knew what happened to the body or where she was buried. Aunty Esther was a big girl for her age, so she was sent out as a cook to work at twelve years of age. Mum being of smaller build was sent out as children's nurse at fourteen. She had responsibility for four young children; one only a baby for 24 hours a day. Mum said they used to put girls ages up if they were big for their age and send them out to work on properties. Some girls were belted and sexually abused by their masters and sent to the missions to have their babies. Some girls just disappeared never to be seen or heard of again. Eventually after several years Mum was sent to Rose Bay to work. Whilst in Sydney she met her sister Esther who was working in the Chatswood area. As far as I know neither Mum or Aunt Esther ever got paid for those hard working years under the Board. My mother often recalled the joyous time Aunty May came to Kempsey to see her sisters and father. The three young women hugged one another and cried with happiness and sadness for their sister and their mother. Early one morning in November 1952 ... Early one morning in November 1952 the manager from Burnt Bridge Mission came to our home with a policeman. I could hear him saying to Mum, 'I am taking the two girls and placing them in Cootamundra Home'. My father was saying, 'What right have you?'. The manager said he can do what he likes, they said my father had a bad character (I presume they said this as my father associated with Aboriginal people). They would not let us kiss our father goodbye, I will never forget the sad look on his face. He was unwell and he worked very hard all his life as a timber-cutter. That was the last time I saw my father, he died within two years after. We were taken to the manager's house at Burnt Bridge. Next morning we were in court. I remember the judge saying, 'These girls don't look neglected to me'. The manager was saying all sorts of things. He wanted us placed in Cootamundra Home. So we were sent away not knowing that it would be five years before we came back to Kempsey again. Mum used to write to us every week. Sometimes it would be 2 months before we received the letters, of course they were opened and read first. Sometimes parts would be torn out of the letters by matron or whoever was in charge. Cootamundra was so different from the North Coast, it was cold and dry. I missed the tall timbers and all the time I was away there was this loneliness inside of me. I had often thought of running away but Kate was there and I was told to always look after her. I had just turned eleven and Kate was still only seven. I often think now of Cootamundra as a sad place, I think of thousands of girls who went through that home, some girls that knew what family love was and others that never knew; they were taken away as babies. Some of the staff were cruel to the girls. Punishment was caning or belting and being locked in the box-room or the old morgue. Matron had her pets and so did some of the staff. I look back now and see we were all herded together like sheep and each had to defend themselves and if you didn't you would be picked on by somebody that didn't like you, your life would be made a misery. I cannot say from my memories Cootamundra was a happy place. In the home on Sundays we often went to two different churches, hymns every Sunday night. The Seventh Day Adventist and Salvation Army came through the week. With all the different religions it was very confusing to find out my own personal and religious beliefs throughout my life. My mother sent us a new outfit every change of season, we only received one parcel. The matron kept our clothes and distributed them to her pets. In winter it was icy cold and for the first time in my life I didn't have socks to wear to school. One day the matron called me to her office. One day the matron called me to her office. She said it was decided by the Board that Kate and myself were to go and live with a lady in a private house. The Board thought we were too 'white' for the home. We were to be used as an experiment and if everything worked out well, more girls would be sent later on. We travelled all day long. We didn't know what place we were going to, all I knew was we were going further and further away from home. Late afternoon we stopped at this house in Narromine. There lived Mrs S., her son and at weekends her husband Lionel. The twenty months Kate and I spent at Narromine were honestly the worst time of my childhood life. I often thought I would not survive long enough ever to see my mother again. The Scottish woman hated me because I would not call her 'Mum'. She told everyone I was bad. She made us stay up late sewing, knitting and darning that pillowcase full of endless socks. Often we weren't allowed to bed till after 11 p.m. I was always late for school, the headmaster used to greet me with 'Good afternoon Jennifer'. Mrs S. did not allow me to do homework, therefore my schoolwork suffered and myself - a nervous wreck. When I was thirteen years old Mrs S. called this middle-aged male doctor to the house and said she wanted an internal examination of me. That was terribly shameful for me, I will not say anymore. During the time [with her] I was belted naked repeatedly, whenever she had the urge. She was quite mad. I had to cook, clean, attend to her customers' laundry. I was used and humiliated. The Board knew she was refused anymore white children yet they sent us there. Near the end of our stay she got Mr F. from Dubbo to visit. She tried to have me put in Parramatta Girls' Home. By this time I knew other people had complained to the Board. Mr F. asked me if I wanted to go to a white home or back to Cootamundra. So a couple of days later we were back in the Home. It was hard to believe we had gotten away from that woman. It wasn't long after we were back at the Home and Matron called me to her office. She wanted to know what had happened at Narromine. I told her everything. She said the experiment did not work and she would write to the Board for fear they would send more girls out. It did not do any good though because more than half the girls were fostered out over the next three years. Some of the girls were sexually abused, belted and called names by their foster parents. Of course the brainwashing continued about Aboriginals being lazy, dirty and of low intelligence going nowhere. In December 1957 our mother finally got us home. In December 1957 our mother finally got us home. She was the first Aboriginal to move into a Commission house. My mother died four years later, she suffered high blood pressure, she was 54 years old. It was fight all the way to survive because she was born an Aboriginal. I still can't see why we were taken away from our home. We were not neglected, we wore nice clothes, we were not starving. Our father worked hard and provided for us and we came from a very close and loving family. I feel our childhood has been taken away from us and it has left a big hole in our lives. .................................. The experiences of the children of the 'stolen generation' depended greatly on where they were sent. Their destination was largely dependent on their skin colour. Lighter-skinned children were adopted or fostered out to white-Australian homes or non-Indigenous institutions. Many other children were sent to church homes which included Boystown and Marella. Government institutions such as Kinchela Boys' Home and Cootamundra Girls' Home also took in children who were taken from their families. By the late 1930s, the number of children being removed placed pressure on the need for more institutions to be established. Without enough funds to do this, Indigenous children who were deemed 'uncontrollable' became the responsibility of the Child Welfare Department and were usually sent a State corrective institution, such as Parramatta Girls' Home or Mount Penang. While some 'stolen children' have fond memories of their adoptive parents or their times in church missions, a greater number of them suffered a sharply contrast experience. Those who were sent to State institutions were particularly affected by harsh and severe conditions, especially those who were sent to Kinchela Boys' Home on the New South Wales' Mid North Coast. In an enquiry in 1935, it was found that the treatment of many boys at Kinchela was often to the point of extreme cruelty. Reports show that a stockwhip was often used on the boys, that they were often tied up and even starved, all as methods of 'discipline' which were imposed by the superintendents. Aside from physical abuse many of the children, both at Kinchela and other places, were subjected to sexual abuse and consequently felt humiliated and ashamed.  In an attempt to completely sever connections with the Indigenous community the children were not allowed to speak native languages nor perform rituals and traditions. Instead, their education, if they received any at all, was from teachers who were not even qualified. It usually involved reading the Bible or learning patriotic stories of British heroes. Like most institutions for the Indigenous children, rather than focus on education, the ability to work in labouring or domestic jobs was considered more important. Kinchela required the boys to work long hours on the reserve's dairy and vegetable farms. They were later sent at around 14 years of age to work for little money or sometimes even just food and board, as rural labourers on nearby properties. In a similar way, girls at Cootamundra were often trained as domestic servants and later sent to work for white families. Girls of the 'stolen generation' were particularly socialised to view Aboriginal people, particularly Aboriginal men, as inferior. Cootamundra, like many other institutions for girls, encouraged them to 'act like white people' with the hope that they would marry a white Australian man and that their Aboriginal heritage would subsequently diminish. The aftermath During the time when Indigenous children were being taken from their homes, it was a commonly held belief that the government was doing what was in the 'best interest' of the children. However, the children of the 'stolen generation' have since grown into adults and Australian society has continued to see the tragic repercussions. Many of them feel that without ever having had the chance to know their family and their cultural heritage, they have lost a part of their identity. Some Aboriginal people who have tried to return to their Aboriginal communities felt that they did not fit in, because they were unfamiliar with Aboriginal society. However, many also felt that they were not accepted in white society either. This has resulted in much of the 'stolen generation' suffering mental and emotional damage which in turn, has led to higher rates of depression, crime, violence, abuse of alcohol and drugs and also suicide. It is also common for many of them to have an inability to trust people, particularly officials and authorities, as well as to have feelings of low self esteem and insecurity. It is not just the 'stolen generation' who are affected. Many indigenous Australians who were removed from their homes at a young age and were without a model for parenthood are now having difficulty in raising their own children. Recognising that the 'stolen generation' was faced with a number of problems, in the 1980s an Aboriginal organisation called Link-Up was established. Its aim was to assist those Indigenous Australians who had been removed, to meet their family again and to work through issues that they may have suffered. In recent times, the issue of the 'stolen generation' has become a hotly-debated topic, with a number of studies and reports being published. Recent statistics support the general notion that the Aboriginal people who were removed as children were not only no better off than those who continued to grow up in their Aboriginal communities, but in fact were less likely to have completed high school and three times more likely to have a police record. It is reports such as these that have sparked a national debate and generated much media attention. In 1992, the first formal acknowledgment of the 'stolen generation' and the ignorance and prejudice behind the policy was offered by the Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating. This led the way for the 1995 formal enquiry. However, it was quickly followed by controversy when the Howard government replaced the Keating government. Later, the Howard government expressed their regret for the occurrences. In 2000, the Aboriginal Affairs Minister, John Herron, was forced to apologise to those who were offended by his report to parliament which questioned whether it was even a 'stolen generation' at all. He made his claim based on the grounds that the findings suggested that only ten percent of Indigenous children were removed and that this did not constitute an entire generation. On 13 February 2008, as the first action of the new government, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered an official apology to the 'stolen generation'. It is through the popular fiction novel and film Rabbit-Proof Fence, the Walk for Reconciliation in 2000 and the annual National Sorry Day which was first held in 1998, that the 'stolen generation' continues to be recognised and acknowledged in Australian society. While nothing can ever be done to completely repair the damage to the countless families which were, and still are, disrupted as an effect of the 'stolen generation' it is through steps such as these that we can ensure nothing like this will ever happen again in Australia.  http://avaxnews.com/educative/Australian_Aborigines.html These girls happy in their native Arnhem Land free from Australia's notorious prison camp system for aborigines,such as still extant on Palm Id Q.