THE FEMALE FACTORY

John Hospadaryk

Monday morning, Old Stringybark comes out to take a peep
At the best-behaved girls who stand in line like dirty sheep
It’s one way to get a pardon by being sold, by being married off to some cove who’s far too old
Might be better than this place of infamy
Might be better than this stinking hole : The Female Factory.

Within the hour the Reverend Marsden will have you given away
Oh, you’ll be taken up- country somewhere ‘fore the end of the day
And when you think about it, it could have been a lot worse
For the Authorities there, they were not averse to using the Cat o’ Nine Tails or shaving your head
And you personally knew some girls who made sure they left that place dead.

Let’s not mince words : if you’re not high-born, you’re a whore
And the best that you’ll be called is ‘unfortunate wretch’ and nothing more
You were savaged on the transport ships, you were raped in Sydney Town
You were forced to give them favours on the barge that brought you down
You were forced to live in filth, but what is even worse is that your sex and class have no redress
Small wonder that you curse.

Monday morning, Old Stringybark comes out to take a peep.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSZB-52gdg   Chloe & Jason Roweth (BATTLER’s BALLAD), in 2012.

WIKI : “Female factories were based on British bridewells, prisons and workhouses. They were for women convicts transported to the penal colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. An estimated 9,000 convict women were in the 13 female factories, in the colonies of NSW and Van Diemen's Land. This spanned a period of 52 years -1804 to 1856. An estimated 1 in 5 to 1 in 7 Australians are related to these women. The factories were called factories because each was a site of production. The women produced spun wool and flax in all the factories. In the main factories other work was undertaken such as sewing, stocking knitting and straw plaiting. Hard labour included rock breaking and oakum picking.[1] Women were sent to the female factories while awaiting assignment to a household or while awaiting childbirth or weaning or as punishment.”


https://femalefactoryonline.org/about/history/parramatta-female-factory/


R-J