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6 October 2009
Speaker:
Christine Woods
Title:
The Last Ladies—the last boatload of
female convicts to VDL and what happened to
them
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1 September 2009
Speaker:
Meredith Hodgson
Title:
Eliza Williams and her letters to the Leake
family
'The Detroit Letters'
Eliza Williams, a young Irish woman convicted
of larceny, arrived in Van Diemen's Land on
the Anna Maria on 26 January 1851.
She was to spend almost the entirety of her
seven year sentence at 'Rosedale' as assigned
servant to the Leake household. In evidence
presented at her trial, Eliza's aim was to
get to America. She achieved this, being pardoned
a year early on petition from John Leake Esq
in order to travel to New York to be married.
Eliza wrote to members of the Leake family
over many years of her life in Detroit. Her
letters and the other documents pertaining
to her period as a convict are held in University's
collection
of Leake Papers and it is from these original
materials that the paper will drawn.
Meredith Hodgson is a student of history
in the Graduate Diploma of Arts.
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4 August 2009
Speaker:
Chris Leppard
Title:
Were the Damned Whores On The Town or Merely
Unfortunates? A Question of Linguistics
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7 July 2009
Speaker:
Dr Alison Alexander
Title:
Convict transportation by countries other
than Britain
Alison looked at the way other countries
organised convict transportation, especially
looking at female convcits. The only system
which can really be compared with Australia
was Russia, and fortunately Anton Chekhov
gave a good description of a convict settlement
in the nineteenth century. It was amazingly
similar to Australia's.
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5 May 2009 - Anne McMahon
gave a talk titled The Anson and a taste
of Earl Grey. The Anson, on
which 25 shiploads of female convicts served
their primary probation, was moored in the
Derwent between 1844–1850. It served
as a reformatory hulk using non-restraint
or moral treatment as a humane method of behavioural
re-training. Matron was Phillipa Bowden with
her husband Dr Bowden. The Anson
was opposed by JS Hampton who persuaded La
Trobe, Denison, then Earl Grey that the system
was a failure.
Anne McMahon is a graduate of the University
of Tasmania and the ANU, and from 1970 to
2000 was an academic at the University of
Canberra. She is now researching Irish convicts
to Tasmania, 1840–1853.
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7 April 2009 - Angela Ryan
gave a very interesting talk titled Alienation
of identity under slavery, and its relevance
to convict women.
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3 March 2009 - Fiona MacFarlane
gave a fascinating talk about her research
into female bushrangers and the female companions
of bushrangers.
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7 February 2009 - planning
day at Cremorne
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2 December 2008 - Lucy Frost
gave a talk entitled 'The Mismanagement
and bad state of the Female Factory': Inquest
as exposé in 1838. Lucy was delighted
to receive feedback on this talk which will
become a chapter in her new book on the Atwick
convicts.
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11 November 2008 - Liz Rushen
gave a talk titled The Respectable Housekeeper
and Mrs Wilson's Jewellery. The report
details the stories of immigrant women to
NSW who ended up being transported to VDL
in the 1830s, viz. Mary Ann Drayton, Phoebe
McKenzie, Margaret McNamara (aka Cochrane),
Mary McHenry, Louisa Fuller, Margaret Collins,
Phoebe Wainwright and Elizabeth James.
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7 October 2008 - Hamish
Maxwell-Stewart gave a talk on findings from
his current ARC project transcribing convict
records and an overview of findings so far.
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9 September 2008 - Alison
Alexander addressed uson the topic Brutal
or beautiful: Convict women in fiction.
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12 August 2008 - James Parker
gave a fascinating talk entitled The spread
of the single cell as punishment, and its
philosophical origins.
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8 July 2008 - Trudy Cowley
gave a talk about odd and unexpected stories
of female convicts she has come across whilst
transcribing convict records into the Female
Family Founders Database. Notes
from her talk are available here.
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10 June 2008 - Joan Kavanagh
from Ireland gave a talk on Eliza Davis transported
on the Tasmania in 1845.
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8 April 2008 - Lucy Frost
gave a talk titled Little more than girls:
the youngest convicts on the Atwick.
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13 May 2008 - Angie McGowan
gave a talk titled Thresholds for determining
significance in Tasmania's historical archaeological
sites: exploring the new legislative frameworks
for listing and managing.
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11 March 2008 - Tim Causer,
a PhD student, gave a talk on his research
into Norfolk Islanders. He noted that some
of the male convicts were sentenced for sacrilege.
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12
February 2008 - A reading of the play
Unruly Women by Sue McCormick was given.
The play is based on the real life events of
1826 when three Lancashire hand weavers were
convicted of breaking the new mechanical looms
which threatened their livelihoods and found
themselves in Lancaster Gaol awaiting transportation
to Australia. |
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11
December 2007 - Colette McAlpine gave
a talk on a National Trust project she has been
involved in investigating the lives of women
at Runnymede. Dorothea Pitcairn, the
wife of Robert Pitcairn who built Runnymede,
featured, as did some letters of hers recently
unearthed in Scotland. |
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13
November 2007 - Joyce Purtscher and
Dr Dianne Snowden led us on a tour of the Queen's
Orphan Schools. A
transcript of material for the talk is available
here. |
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9
October 2007 - Dr Alison Alexander
gave a talk titled 'The convict stigma: why
was it worse in Tasmania?'. Input from
the audience was appreciated. |
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11
September 2007 - Thelma Mackay gave
a talk based on her recently published book
The Princess Royal Girls: The First Free
Female Immigration Ship to Van Diemen's Land
1832. |
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14
August 2007 - Toni Sherwood gave a
talk titled Annie Baxter Dawbin and her
convict servants in Hobart 1849–1850 |
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10
July 2007 - Andy McKinlay gave a talk
on the first orphanages (before the Queen's
Orphan Schools). |
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12
June 2007 - Members of the George Town
History Society gave a talk on female convicts
at George Town and the George Town Female Factory.
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8
May 2007 - Joyce Purtscher gave a talk
on the Reformatories, Industrial School and
St Joseph's Orphanage. A synopsis
of her talk is available here—After
the Queen's Orphanage. |
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10
April 2007 - Professor Lucy Frost gave
a talk entitled Imagining Mary Hutchinson
on the life of Mary Hutchinson, Matron of Cascades
Female Factory and later Superintendent of Launceston
Female Factory. This talk will be published
as a chapter in a forthcoming book. |
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13
March 2007 - Dr Alison Alexander gave
a talk on Tasmanian attitudes to convicts in
the 19th century. |
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13
February 2007
- Allison Rylan, Historic Heritage Officer for
the Cascades site gave a report on activities
concerning the site, particularly the draft
Conservation Management Plan. |
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12
December
2006
- Fiona MacFarlane gave a talk on Jemmy
the Rover, an infamous and interesting
female convict who matched it with the boys!
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14
November 2006
- Dr Dianne Snowden
gave a talk on findings from research on the
female convicts transported on Rajah
- who was involved in making the Rajah
Quilt?
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10
October 2006 -
Dr Trudy Cowley gave a talk on findings from
research on the female convicts transported
on Rajah - disposal of the convicts
on arrival and riots in the Launceston and
Cascades female factories.
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12
September 2006 - Leonie
Mickleborough gave a talk titled Lieutenant-Governor
Colonel William Sorell: Appearances of Respectability.
A copy of her talk is available here.
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8
August 2006 - Dr
Rebecca Kippen, whose PhD thesis was titled
Death in Tasmania gave a talk titled
Infant and Child Mortality in the Convict
Nurseries. A copy of her talk is available
here.
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11
July 2006 - Dr
Alison Alexander gave a talk about the lives
of convicts after gaining their freedom, providing
statistics on those who stayed in Tasmania
and those who left.
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13
June 2006 - Dr
Susan Ballyn, Director, Australian Studies
Centre, University of Barcelona, gave a talk
titled Esther Botibol per Anna Maria—Sephardi
Jewess from Portugal, Italy or London? Her
obscure identity and obscurer life.
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9
May 2006 – Joyce
Purtscher gave a presentation called "Where
did they all go? indexing institutions of the
post-convict period". She told us about
the post-convict institutions, including the
Brickfields Invalid Depot (1859–1882),
the Cascades Invalid Depot (1869–1879);
the Launceston Benevolent Asylum (1895–1915),
the Launceston Invalid Depot, and the New Town
Charitable Institute 1874 onwards. She spoke
about the survival (or not) of their records,
and about what she has learned from indexing
them. |
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11
April 2006 –
group members talked about their current research
projects related to female convicts.
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14
March 2006 –
Prof Lucy Frost gave a talk titled Gifts
of Patchwork & Visits to Whitehall: The
Ladies British Society and the Female Convict
Transports |
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14
February 2006
– Fiona MacFarlane gave a talk about the Dress
Reform in the 19th century |
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6
December 2005
– Prof Lucy Frost held a conversation with colonial
archaeologist Dr Eleanor Casella about her work
at the Ross Female Factory |
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24
November 2005
– a workshop, in collaboration with the Centre
for Colonialism and its Aftermath, was held
at Ross Supper Room -
click here
for more information |
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8
November 2005
- Jeanette Hyland gave a talk about her forthcoming
book Maids, Masters & Magistrates
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11
October 2005
- Fiona Macfarlane's talk about the aesthetic
dress movement was cancelled due to illness
and is rescheduled for March 2006
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13
September 2005
- Dr Trudy Cowley gave a talk titled Mad
or just feisty? about Australasia
convicts who were inmates at New Norfolk Insane
Asylum |
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9
August 2005 -
Tony Rayner, author of female factory, female
convicts gave a talk titled Reflections
on the Site of the Female Factory at Cascades
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12
July 2005 -
Irene Schaffer
talked about 5 colonial Tasmanian women, including
Elizabeth Gibson, the Mistress of Pleasant Banks,
and Mary Bowater |
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14
June 2005 - Ken
Griffin, who was visiting Tasmania for 6 weeks
from Hertfordshire, talked about his British
convicts 1770-1870 database project and female
convicts |
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10
May 2005 - Jo
Richardson, a doctoral student at UTAS, talked
about Mary Morton Allport and her servants
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2
May 2005 - a
special meeting was held in conjunction
with the University of Tasmania's Centre for
Colonialism and its Aftermath — Helen McDonald,
a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Melbourne
spoke on the chapter in her new book Human
Remains: Episodes in human dissection
about Mary McLachlan, the first woman hanged
in Van Diemen's Land, for the offence of killing
her baby at Cascades Female Factory
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12
April 2005 - Brad Williams talked about
the archaeological survey he is conducting of
the Anson mooring and provided general
background on other Australian hulks
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8
March 2005 - Babette Smith, author of
A
Cargo of Women talked about the
research she is conducting for her upcoming
book |
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8
February 2005 - Dianne Snowden gave a talk
titled The Flash Mob: Historical Authenticity
and Heritage Tourism |
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14
December 2004 - Prof Lucy Frost talked about
female convicts transported to Van Diemen's
Land from multi-cultural backgrounds (eg, Portugal,
France, West Indies) |
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9
November 2004 - the Group debriefed from
the muster held on 7 November and celebrated
our success |
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12 October 2004
- Chris Woods talked about her book,
The
Last Ladies
and we held
a final planning meeting for the muster which
was held on 7 November |
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14
September 2004 - planning meeting for the
muster which was held on 7 November |
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10
August 2004 - Dr Kirsty Reid from the University
of Bristol talked about female convicts in early
VDL (from her forthcoming book) |
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13 July 2004 -
Dr Alison Alexander chaired a discussion on
the design of our
database
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8
June 2004 - Gai Anderson talked about her
play Reading Between the Lines (a
muster highlight)
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