Parramatta Female Factory precinct is located at the upper reaches of the Parramatta river about 16 kilometres from Sydney, NSW Australia. Parramatta was the second European settlement in Australia. It is the primary site for female convicts transported to NSW.

Parramatta Female Factory Precinct was the destination of all unassigned convict women transported to the colony of New South Wales. It remains today as a forgotten and hidden history of Australia. Within the precinct are the institutions of the old convict built Roman Catholic Orphan School ( 1841 -1886) and the Parramatta Girls Home (1887-1983). Today this institution continues it long history of incarceration of women as the Norma Parker Detention Centre.

Approximately 30,000 girls passed through the Industrial School, upwards of 10,000 children through the orphanage and today 1 in 7 Australians is descended from a convict woman of the Female Factory.

The site is on the State heritage Register - but this does not protect it from unsympathetic development.

Recent changes to the NSW Planning, Environment and Heritage Departments will see the closure of the NSW Heritage office which currently has some capacity in protecting the heritage of the site.

The NSW Government have prepared proposals for the development of the site which do not take into account its significance to women, and other marginalised groups. The entire site is under threat.

It is believed that NSW Corrective Services who currently manage the Norma Parker section ( former girls Home) will be locating male sex offenders to this location.

This proposed move is an affront to the women and children who since 1821 have been committed to its institutions mainly as a result of sexual or physical abuse at the hands of such sex offenders.

Please lend your support to this campaign.

More information at The Living Memorial or ABC Unleashed.