From Hansard: Ms TANYA GADIEL (Parramatta—Parliamentary
Secretary) [5.51 p.m.]: In
1871, just 137 years ago, the population of
Australia was around two million, with just over 500,000 living in New
South Wales and just under 140,000 living in Sydney. Outside Sydney lay
Parramatta, first explored by Europeans on an expedition headed by
Captain Arthur Phillip in April 1788. Phillip identified a location on
the curve of the Parramatta River marked by a crossing of flat stones.
That is where he envisaged a jail town and farm—a place that through
industry and sacrifice became the crucible within which much of
Australia was born. Phillip named this location Rose Hill, but it was
not long until the name Parramatta was adopted—a variation of
Burramattagal after the local Aboriginal people. To my knowledge, this
is the first European settlement location named after the indigenous
people of this country.
Nearby on a rise overlooking the
river stands Australia's oldest public building—our first Government
House, and home to the first 12 Governors of the colony. It is also the
place where the Burramattagal fished the waters of the Parramatta
River. They marked it as a woman's place—a place where the salt waters
of the harbour blended with the freshwaters of the river, a place for
ceremony, for matrimony and for the gathering of tribes. Back in the
early days of the colony the river marked the divide between those who
ruled and those who were ruled. On the opposite shore stood the town
jail, the female factory and a government orphanage for Roman Catholic
children, which would later become the Parramatta Girls Home. We have
become aware of the appalling way in which those young women were
treated, which was a national disgrace.
Most people are unaware that almost 20 per cent of convicts were women
and that on arrival all unassigned women were taken to Parramatta. Even
assigned women would invariably spend time at the factory. For many it
offered a safe refuge. For others it offered a marriage bureau, a
hospital for the sick, destitute or nursing mothers, a place of
employment or a place of incarceration and punishment. In many ways the
female factory was an Australian variation on the English workhouse
where women and their children lived, worked and served out their
sentences. The women who lived there were the founding mothers of this
nation, but instead these women were betrayed as damned whores,
incorrigibles and wanton creatures beyond redemption. However, it was
they who spun the first fleece and produced the first woven cloth in
Australia. All this took place within the high walls of the Parramatta
female factory. The precinct has been tainted with a legacy of
immorality, criminality and, in the latter part of its history,
insanity. This insidious legacy has had a significant impact on later
generations confined to the precinct's institutions.
For the convict women and for the later generations of
institutionalised kids—the thousands of forgotten Australians—no place
is dedicated to their memory. It is time that all these Australians and
the site were acknowledged. The Parramatta female factory is a site of
memory and of conscience. It could be a world-class site of new
cultural expressions by linking the rich narratives of the site's past
to a multicultural, intergenerational exploration of art and new media,
thereby increasing tourism opportunities and delivering real economic,
social and cultural benefits to the region. It could also tell the
story of the convicts in Australia. Its designation would affirm that
we have moved forward, that we are a nation that values equality and
that we strive for reconciliation with our past and the traditional
owners of the land.
I have become aware of a rumour that this site will be used to house
rapists and paedophiles. I believe that to be unfounded and I have been
given assurances by the Attorney General that it is not true. Within
Parramatta there is significant community opposition to this proposal,
if indeed it is a proposal. A campaign has been initiated by the former
Parramatta girls to designate this and the adjacent female factory site
as a living memorial to women and the forgotten Australians. I
completely support their campaign and thank Bonney Djuric for bringing
this matter to my attention. I will work with her, the Parramatta
girls, the Parramatta community and this Government to ensure that her
dream becomes a reality. I thank Bonney for her passion. She is a
wonderful woman. I thank her for spending so much time with me and for
telling me about this story and her vision for this site.
Email your comments to Tanya Gadiel
