Parramatta Female Factory

By a funny coincidence, the day that I read of this new Australian site being added to the tentative list, I was already planning on visiting Parramatta (the Wistaria Gardens with their cherry blossom trees in bloom, on the edge of the Old Government House and Domain location for the existing Australian Convict Sites). Usually most new tentative sites are on the other side of the world and require a 24 hour flight, but this only required a 10 minute detour on foot (the existing convict site and this new proposed site are almost adjacent, on opposite sides of the Parramatta River, and easy to visit together).

At the moment, the Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct is not fully set up for visitors, although there are a lot of developments going on in the area (and in Parramatta in general) and I'm sure there will be more visitor options in the future. Initially I thought the focus was just on the Female Factory, which is difficult as some of the buildings have been knocked down and others repurposed over the years for a mental institution and other health facilities. The precinct is on the edge of a current day health precinct.

Wandering around the site, there's quite a few signs that explore the history of the site and show maps of the different buildings at different points in time - more than I expected. One of the most interesting parts of the site currently open to the …