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Country Women’s Association (Tasmanian Archives: NG3954)

Black and white image of a parade float with several young women dressed in white next to a sculpture of a swan. A man drives the truck. A sign bearing the CWA Tasmania logo attached to the front of the truck. A crowd and fairground are in the background.
Huon Valley Apple Festival – a CWA (Country Women’s Association) float ‘the Swan’, at Cygnet. Tasmanian Archives: AA375/1/446

In 2011, the State Secretary of the Country Women’s Association first contacted the Tasmanian Archives to initiate a donation of their records. In 2023 the records came to us, and we commenced listing.

This collection opens the opportunity for researchers to discover more about the Country Women’s Association’s impacts on the Tasmanian community. For those interested in family research, the records reflect the opinions and actions of individual members and their dedication to local concerns. The collection also reveals details about rural communities around the state, and how members banded together in times of need.

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Filtered through the Factory Part Two: Sarah Birmingham

Inside front cover of a book with orange and blue marbled endpapers. Label taped inside reads Convict Department. Female Factory. Register of Female convicts admitted to factory showing no. of days victualled. 31 May 1833-31 March 1834.
Tasmanian Archives: CON139/1/1

In part one of this blog, we looked at the Cascades Female Factory admission register (Female House of Correction, Hobart – Register of Female Convicts admitted to the Factory, showing Number of Days Victualled, Tasmanian Archives: CON139/1/1), which records female convicts who passed through the ‘Female Factory’ from June 1833 to March 1834. This record tells us where the women were coming from (their assigned employer, police office or other institution), how long they were held in the Factory and where, or to whom, they were sent. You can search the data from CON139 in the Tasmanian Names Index.

This time, we are looking at a female convict who had a child in the institution.

Continue reading “Filtered through the Factory Part Two: Sarah Birmingham”


Filtered through the Factory Part One: Mary Armstrong

Inside front cover of a book with orange and blue marbled endpapers. Label taped inside reads Convict Department. Female Factory. Register of Female convicts admitted to factory showing no. of days victualled. 31 May 1833-31 March 1834.
Tasmanian Archives: CON139/1/1

The value of Tasmania’s convict records lies in the detailed information they provide on each person. But there are still gaps in our knowledge due to events not being recorded or records not being preserved in the Archives. Sometimes a single volume or scrap of paper shows us how much more we could have known if the record had survived in its entirety. One such item is a volume from the Cascades Female House of Correction (Female House of Correction, Hobart – Register of Female Convicts admitted to the Factory, showing Number of Days Victualled, Tasmanian Archives: CON139/1/1, which records female convicts who passed through the ‘Female Factory’ in 1833-1834. This record tells us where the women were coming from (their assigned employer, police office or other institution), how long they were held in the Factory and where (or to whom) they were sent.

While this volume has not been newly discovered, we have now completed the task of transcribing the data and linking the relevant pages to convicts’ entries in the Tasmanian Names Index. This includes 766 female convicts and 212 of their children. Search the data from CON139 in the Tasmanian Names Index.

Read on to find out more about the significance of this volume, and the story of one of the women it records.

Continue reading “Filtered through the Factory Part One: Mary Armstrong”


Sewing for freedom: clothes production at the Cascades Female Factory

Piece of paper that detailing the work capacity of different classes of female convicts. Text reads: "Van Diemen's land. Convict department. Revised scale of task = Work. adapted to the capacity of the several classes of female convicts proportioned for the various seasons of the year"
Tasmanian Archives:Plan/Map – Oversize Chart of Convict Department Revised Scale of Task Work Adapted to the Capacity of the several Classes of Female Convicts and proportioned to the various Seasons of the Year (1852), GO33-1-100

This blog is one of a series that explores in greater depth some of the fascinating stories that we uncovered while researching Duck Trousers, Straw Bonnets, and Bluey: Stories of fabrics and clothing in Tasmania, an exhibition currently on display in the State Library of Tasmania and Tasmanian Archives Reading Room in Hobart. These blogs are designed to complement the exhibition, expanding some elements of the exhibition story walls to provide more context and different perspectives.

Female Factories in colonial Van Diemen’s Land were arrival and hiring depots, as well as somewhere to house those who were unfit for service outside, whether ill, rebellious, or pregnant with nowhere else to go. They were also the instrument of systematic and severe punishment of convict women for often minor offences and were also known as a ‘Female House of Correction’.  Thanks to the Convict Department’s aims of strict discipline, control and reform through hard labour, which it was hoped would earn enough money to help to cover costs, women worked long hours at tasks including standing for hours in the cold at outdoor laundry tubs, picking apart old tar-laden ropes, spinning wool, and sewing and clothes-making.

Continue reading “Sewing for freedom: clothes production at the Cascades Female Factory”


Tasmanian Textiles and Clothing in Film

A still from a film titled: More than apples. 3 Women standing next to a brick wall
Tasmanian Archives: a still taken from Film – The Other Face Of The Island (1970), AB869/1/2002

For the moving visual addition to the Duck Trousers, Straw Bonnets, and Bluey exhibition now showing in the State Library Reading Room, we were able to find a few gems from the late Tasmanian Film Corporation. The Tasmanian Film Corporation was the last incarnation of the Tasmanian Government film unit, which was established in 1946 by the Lands and Surveys Department. It would evolve into the Department of Film Production in 1960 to oversee the full range of film production in the state before being transformed into the government owned commercial business model in the guise of The Tasmanian Film Corporation in 1977. If it moves, we’ll shoot it was a witty commercial made in 1968 by the Department of Film Production about their services.

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The Race to a Thousand Pounds: Unravelling Tasmania’s Woollen Industry (Part Three: Success or Misfortune?)

A photograph of a farmer and his flock
Tasmanian Archives: A farmer and his flock. NS392-1-131

This blog is one in a series published by the State Library and Archive team that explores in greater depth some of the fascinating stories that we uncovered while researching our current exhibition, Duck Trousers, Straw Bonnets, and Bluey: Stories of fabrics and clothing in Tasmania. These blogs are designed to complement the exhibition, expanding information presented on the story walls to provide more context and other perspectives.  This blog is the last of three blogs that extends the research presented on the “Tale of two Woollen Mills” story wall.

Continue reading “The Race to a Thousand Pounds: Unravelling Tasmania’s Woollen Industry (Part Three: Success or Misfortune?)”


The Race to a Thousand Pounds: Unravelling Tasmania’s Woollen Industry (Part Two: To the South)

A photograph of a farmer and his flock
Tasmanian Archives: A farmer and his flock. NS392-1-131

This blog is one in a series published by the State Library and Archive team that explores in greater depth some of the fascinating stories that we uncovered while researching our current exhibition, Duck Trousers, Straw Bonnets, and Bluey: Stories of fabrics and clothing in Tasmania. These blogs are designed to complement the exhibition, expanding information presented on the story walls to provide more context and other perspectives.  This blog is the second of three blogs that extends the research presented on the “Tale of two Woollen Mills” story wall.

Continue reading “The Race to a Thousand Pounds: Unravelling Tasmania’s Woollen Industry (Part Two: To the South)”


The Race to a Thousand Pounds: Unravelling Tasmania’s Woollen Industry (Part One: In the North)

A photograph of a farmer and his flock
Tasmanian Archives: A farmer and his flock. NS392-1-131

This blog is one in a series published by the State Library and Archive team that explores in greater depth some of the fascinating stories that we uncovered while researching our current exhibition, Duck Trousers, Straw Bonnets, and Bluey: Stories of fabrics and clothing in Tasmania. These blogs are designed to complement the exhibition, expanding information presented on the story walls to provide more context and other perspectives. This blog, which will be published in three parts, extends the research presented on the “Tale of two Woollen Mills” story wall.

Continue reading “The Race to a Thousand Pounds: Unravelling Tasmania’s Woollen Industry (Part One: In the North)”


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