As I mentioned while in Tassie we visited the Cascades Female Factory, this place is Australia’s most significant historic site associated with female convicts. It was a purpose built, self-contained institution intended to reform female convicts and is the place to discover the stories of Australia’s convict women.

Thousands of women and children were imprisoned there and many never left, due to high rates of illness and infant mortality. Days after the first women were relocated there from the older prison which housed both men and women, the rules and regulations for the management of the house of correction were issued to the principal superintendent. The rules outlined the staff required to manage the establishment including a superintendent, a matron, an overseer and a task mistress for the crime class, a porter and a clerk and two constables. They also outlined how the women were to be divided in class and duties. There were three classes and on no account were they classes to communicate with each other.

The first class consisted of women recently arrived from England who exhibited good behaviour on the journey as well as those returning from service with good characters and those who had successfully seen out their probation in second class. This class was considered assignable and the women were sent to service when the appropriate employment could be found.

The second class was to comprised of those who had been guilty of minor offences and those who by their improved conduct were removed from third class also known as the crime class.

Those is third class or the crime class consisted of women who had been transported for the second time, those guilty of misconduct on their journey to the colony as well as those convicted of offences before the Supreme Court or those who committed offences while in the establishment.

One such offence was the offence of becoming pregnant yes becoming pregnant was an office didn’t matter if the sexual act was consensual or not so even if a woman had been raped and became pregnant it was still an offence to be pregnant. The baby would be born inside the prison and stay there for the first three years of life before being removed to an orphanage where they would remain till around the age of 13.

The class system regulated both clothing and daily tasks of the women, the first class were employed as cooks, task overseers and hospital attendants. The second class were employed in making clothes for the establishment and preparing and mending linen. The crime class was sentenced to the wash-tub, doing laundry for the factory, the orphan school and the penitentiary, they also carded and spun wool but of course all tasks were subject to change at the discretion of the Principal Superintendent.

When we were there is was raining sleet and so bloody cold and there were puddles of water around, we were told that the ground was a metre or two higher then it was back when it was in operation so during the winter months the women would be out doing their work in icy cold water up to their knees, they often did the washing in cold to icy cold water.

During the summer months the inmates spent many long hours usually around 12 hours a day working and even the slightest disobedience to the rules was punishable.

“Females guilty of disobedience of orders, neglect of work, profane, obscene, or abusive language, insubordination, or other turbulent or disorderly or disrespectful conduct, shall be punished by the superintendent with close confinement in a dark or other cell, until her case shall be brought under consideration of the Principal Superintendent.”

When convict transportation to “Van Diemen’s Land” as Tasmania was once known as ceased in 1853, parts of the Female Factory site were used by new institutions with the main site being proclaimed a gaol in 1856 with its running being transferred to local authorities although it remained to be known as the Female Factory. The site housed a male invalid depot, a female invalid depot and a boys reformatory in 1869.

It was at this time the Female Factory was scaled back to yards 1 and 2 and rear of yard 5 at it’s hight the Female Factory took up the whole of the street it is housed in but only a small part of it is left and it is now a historic site.

The years to follow saw other institutions come and go including a Contagious Diseases Hospital a Living-in-Home and Hospital for the insane. The Women’s Prison site finally closed in 1877 and by 1904 the place was no longer used at all.

In 1905 the site was auctioned by the government to private buyers at that time nearly all the buildings had been demolished with a number of industrial buildings constructed across the site. It was in the early 1970’s that the Women’s Electoral Lobby sought out a Federal government grant to purchase yard 1 handing over management to the Parks and Wildlife Service.

It was between 1999-2004 that the Female Factory Historic Site Ltd acquired yard 3 and the Matron’s Quarters and in 2008 the Tasmanian Government purchased the remaining part of yard 4 to form the Historic Sit as it is today.

Hello everyone started this yesterday afternoon but with one thing or another never got around to finishing it and posting it which was somewhat annoying, if I want something done I really need to do it in the morning, guess I am more a morning person then an afternoon person.

At the moment I am reading a book called Oddfellows by Nicholas Shakespear, it is about something that happened in Broken Hill which is New South Wales on the first of January 1915, something I knew nothing about but I was inspired to get on line and do some research about the incident this is what I found out.

On January 1st. 1915 at 10.00am, an overcrowded picnic train left Broken Hill carrying 1200 excited men, women and children to attend the annual Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows New Years Day celebration picnic at Silverton.

The long train consisted of two break vans and 40 ore trucks where people sat in rows, shoulder to shoulder on flat wooden benches.

Approximately a few kilometres out of town, by the railway fence on the northern line of the water main from Umberumberka, an ice cream cart flying a Turkish flag was noticed and two men later identified as Gool Mohamed and Mulla Abdulla, were seen crouched behind a mound of earth.

As the train drew level with the men, the ore trucks were swept by a hall of bullets as they opened fire on the passengers with their
Snider and Martini Henry rifles!

The firing continued as the train trudged slowly passed with 20 or 30 shots being fired. The picnickers panicked and thrown into confusion when they seen people falling around them.

The train was brought to a halt further up the line to determine the number of the passengers injured,if not killed. Two people were killed and six wounded on the train, Alma Cowie aged 17 died instantly. William Shaw a foreman in the Sanitary Department was killed and his daughter Lucy was injured. Another 5 people were also wounded. Three of the victims were removed from the train and taken to the pumping station at the reservoir and medical men summoned from Broken Hill to attend to them.

Alfred Millard, a pipeline inspector was killed when he received a fatal wound to the head as he was cycling beside the train.

Constable Robert Mills received two bullet wounds during the pursuit.

Jim Craig the fourth fatality, was chopping wood in his back yard at the rear of the Cable Hotel when a stray Turkish bullet killed him during exchange of fire.

Soon after the attack Gool and Abdullah withdrew towards the west. During their attempted escape they came across and murdered Millard. By this time the police were in full pursuit, when they sighted the two running assassins they fired their guns above their heads in order to force them to surrender, but Gool and Abdullah returned fire and wounded Mills.

The murderous pair made their last stand at the top of a hill where they found refuge behind large rocks a few hundred yards west of the Cable Hotel.

Local militiamen, police, members of the rifle club and citizens spread out on the adjoining hills, there was an hour and half of heavy gun fire poured into the enemy’s position, the Muslims returning fire with spirit but without effect, the stronghold was rushed where it was found that Mullah Abdulla was dead and Gool Mohammed so severely injured that he died in hospital a few hours later.

What was the motive behind the attack, it seems a miner found three statements beneath a rock at the “Turks” last stand written in Urdu (a language used by Afghan tribesman of the North-West Frontier Provinces around 1915). Two of the documents revealed the motives for attacking the picnic train; the third proved to be an application by Gool Mohammed to join the Turkish Army.

In neat writing Gool Mohammed wrote, “I kill your people because your people are fighting my country”. Mullah Abdulla had been worried because of a recent court conviction for killing a sheep on private property, in his capacity as a Moslem official. On one hand there was a fiery young Afrida itching to strike a blow for Turkey; on the other a simple friendless old man ready to join forces against authority.

The whole city was incensed at the needless slaughter and looked for some means of reprisal. The Germans and the Turks were at war with the Allies: The German Club building stood empty in Delamore Street and by nightfall was in flames. Because the “Turks” were Moslems a crowd rushed to the camel camp, ready to vent its anger on the Islamic community, but the road was blocked by police and militia and the crowd dispersed.

Local Muslims were horrified at the tragedy and refused to be responsible for the burial of the murderous pair.

The bodies were later interred in an unhallowed secret location in Broken Hill.

Hello all been a few days since I last posted since getting home on Tuesday I have been busy as with one thing or another, but here we are at Friday afternoon and I am going to do a quick post to let all know I am still around and not sick or anything like that.

Yesterday I went to see the specialist about my shaking and balance problems again, not happy. He said it is a functional tremor caused by stress and said all I can really do is try and learn to live with it and try relaxation methods to help ease it. Yes when I am really upset and the hand/arm is shaking a lot breathing and focus on my breathing does help settle it down a little but doesn’t stop it also does nothing to stop the balance problems. He said he would have a chat with the movement disorder people and see if they agree with him. I do not have to go back as he said there is no point. So I left somewhat upset, I mentioned that even when I went away on holiday and had no stress at all the shaking and balance problems were still there he couldn’t say why that is other then I might need to be away from the source of the stress for a long period of time but that isn’t practical and he knew that.

Let us go back to Wednesday on the Tuesday night Tim found his new computer laying face down on the floor, he was not happy and when he asked both Blain and Leo about it both denied knowing anything about hit of course they were lying one had to know what happened it didn’t move it’s self to the floor.

So both boys ended up getting into trouble that afternoon Blain wasn’t allowed to use his Xbox and they both had to sit in the bedroom doing nothing till one of them admitted to touching it. Well Leo admitted when we came home from school so Blain still had no Xbox but I allowed both boys to play out the back yard. However, Leo is not allowed to stay here tonight as way of punishment for touching it and lying about it to start with.

So I was happy when Jessica rang me this afternoon to tell me she would pick Leo up from school, this meant I didn’t have to deal with him as he would be in a mood because I got him and not bringing him back here for the night.

Also he has a communication book that is to be filled in each morning with information like if he has had a good morning and has had his medication, well when we went to Tassie I left the book on my computer desk, so I sent Jessica a message about it telling her to pick it up and fill it in each day, well when I got home it was exactly where I left it. I was not happy.

Ok that is it from me for this post, over the weekend I have a lot of letters to answer so that is what I will be doing although I am doing lunch here on Sunday for Michael’s birthday he is 30, his birthday was when we were in Tassie.

Well our last day in Tassie is coming to an end this morning we drove to Mount Wellington and even though the road was closed and we could only go 4k’s up it it was still nice and yes there was snow although it wasn’t that cold I didn’t get out of the car much as the ground was covered in ice and snow and thought it wouldn’t be safe as I am likely to fall over. We then drove back to Hobart stopping to take a couple of photos of something called The Shot Tower and then back to Hobart for lunch at the SoHo hotel which was nice then came back to the motel for the night I haven’t said anything to Tim but I am not feeling the best I was starting to feel unsteady and my arm is super aching tonight, ok it has been super aching every night but I think after a few days of it aching so much and feeling so heavy it is starting to get to me

It is now day three of our Tassie holiday, today was spent visiting markets and gaols, first off we went to the Salamanca markets then we went to the Female Factory which was where the female convicts were kept and later other female prisoners. We there drove to Richmond to visit Old Hobart Town which is a model town place but changed our mind and instead went to Old Richmond Gaol which is the oldest gaol in the country that is still in its original condition as it hasn’t been restored like the others both places were interesting, We are at the motel for a bit to just chill and that is easy as it is bloody cold here with the temp being between 1-3°C but the wind chill factor makes it feel much colder. As for food today I have had a plate of hot chips with gravy that is it for me today oh and half a chocolate bar and a small hot chocolate.

Here we are at day two in Tassie, still cold and wet we stopped on the way to Hobart to check out a windmill, and then we stopped for food at White Moe Espresso Tim got a hamburger and chips I had the chips he had the burger he said it as really nice. We checked out the old gaol here with a guided tour and we both enjoyed that now we are at the motel for the night the room is nice not as large as the one we had last night but its ok. We went to Woolworths and got a few things and stopped and bought hot chips for tea

Arrived in Tassie safe and well the motel room is nice a good size and the heater was on when we arrived so the room is warm outside it is cold and wet and I have a splitting headache but the shower was nice and hot although it took a bit to get the temperature right we flew with Virgin Australia and they were ok no complaints. Although not happy that Natasha Tinkabell Meadows rang to tell me that Leo took all the cheese into papas room and it has gone off that is $9 wasted.

Hello all this will be the last of the cruise related posts, with me telling you a bit about Noumea which was our last port of call on the cruise, Noumea is part of New Caledonia it has a population of around 94,000 the locals speak French and Kanak dialects, the French overseas the territory and local government. The currency is French Pacific Franc but we found many places also accepted Australian money and some even accepted American money.

Even though New Caledonia is French territory it was Captain James Cook who named the place way back in 1774.

In the 1800’s Noumea had a strong frontier quality with adventurers, miners, traders, seafarers, government officials and convicts all calling the place home. Over time other ethnic groups added to the mix with Chinese, Vietnamese and during world war two American servicemen calling the place home, many went there to seek their fortunes in the nickel and gold mines.

New Caledonia’s Barrier Reef is the worlds longest and second largest behind Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The country also has the worlds largest lagoon within which you will find the picture perfect islands of Amedee and Canard also known as Duck island.

Yes it is still winter but it isn’t that cold today, in fact the last few days it has been really warm with temps in the mid 20’s no need for the heater the last few days.

Was speaking to mum last night as I do every night and she told me that dad is really sick again, he went to see the chest specialist yesterday and when the doctor asked him how he was he replied not good doctor not good at all, this is unusual for dad generally he will say he is ok or fine when asked how he is doing by anyone.

I went to the doctors today and got a lecture about my weight and how I need to get my diabetes under better control, I said yeah I know and I know what to and not to eat and that I need to exercise more and all but knowing what to do and finding the motivation to do it can be two different things.

I said my depression is ok and well in hand, good thing a flashing light with the word liar doesn’t appear when one lies, yeah for the most part my depression is well in hand but if I was to be honest the tremor and balance problems are getting me down I am so tired of the aching and stiffness in my right arm and to make matters worse I have started getting shocking headaches again many days I have a headache.

I asked about the pain in my left thigh the doctor looked at it and added a couple of things to the form for blood tests and asked if I could go see him on Friday to which I said no sorry can’t do as I am flying to Tassie on Thursday and will not be back till next Tuesday so can see him sometime next week.

The blood test is a fasting test so I will either have it done tomorrow morning or Thursday morning if I have time and don’t forget.

School has gone back today so I will have to leave soon to go get the boys from school, I hope both boys have had a good first day of school.

Now let me tell you about Port Denarau, it is an island just of the coast of Fiji;s main island Viti Levu this is a larger island and has many luxurious hotels, a golf course with immaculately manicured residential estates with palm tree lined streets and some of the best sporting facilities in the pacific.

It has a population of over 10,000 those on the island speak English, Fijian and Hindi the currency is the Fijian dollar but many stores also accept both Australian and American dollars.

The island is attached to the Fijian mainland by a causeway, access to the island is via tender from the ship as the ship was too large for the harbour. The weather when were were there was nice sunny but not too hot nor humid.

This is the island that Tim saw the dentist on and which because of all the mucking around that resulted in I didn’t get to see much of interest, I did notice that the stores at the marina and would have liked to wonder through them but by the time all was said and done with Tim and his teeth I was too exhausted to do so.

When we were being driven around the place the areas often looked dirty compared to the marina but the people were mostly friendly and they tried to be helpful, would I go back there yeah I would.