The iron gate of Launceston Female Factory clanged shut behind Mary, plummeting her back through time to her arrival at Cardiff Gaol to await trial. The remembered stink of chamber pots and unwashed bodies assaulted her nostrils. The occasional shouting, the relentless whispering, the persistent undercurrent of threat rushed back, drowning out the warden’s lecture. She shivered, recalling the dampness of cold stone walls. She’d never been warm during those long months and had determined never to go back inside. And yet, here she was.
How much her life had changed since those wild, dark days with the Pontystorehouse gang in Wales. Mary had travelled months on a stinking, creaking ship to this strange new land on the other side of the world, had been shunted from boss to boss, labouring long days in steamy laundries. Some women had a worse time of it, some better — it all depended on what sort of man their boss was. But once assigned to Woolmers Estate out in Longford, she had found space to breathe. While not free, she had felt so. Mary had even married and had begun to believe she was part of building something here. And then the rules had changed; some toff in London decided that the Assignment system needed reform, and she was recalled here on Probation. Locked up, again.
The huge stone building, octagonal in plan, loomed over her. It was designed so that the warden could see all the yards and the chapel from his quarters; inmates were observed at all times. Mary shivered again, though not from cold on this hot February day. She wondered what the nights were like inside. Even out in Longford she had heard wild stories of the Factory, of escapes, riots, standover gangs, and bullies. But she wasn’t afraid; she knew how to look after herself. Three years spent ‘on the town’ in Merthyr Tydfil had taught her enough skills to survive a scrap – her alias wasn’t Mary Strap for nothing. She just needed to endure long enough to be assigned out again. That she could do.
Bibliography
Female Convicts Research Centre Inc., Female Convicts in VDL Database, FCRC Inc.
Female Convicts Research Centre, Launceston Female Factory, FCRC Inc. Launceston Female Factory (femaleconvicts.org.au)
Female Convicts Research Centre, Probation System, FCRC Inc. https://femaleconvicts.org.au/administration/probation-system.
Tasmanian Archives.
Traces Magazine, 2020, An Estate Steeped in History, https://tracesmagazine.com.au/2020/10/an-estate-steeped-in-history/.
The dehumanizing name for these convict prisons --"female factories" --just sends chills down the spine.