The Cascades Female Factory was one of the 11 National Heritage Sites that were honoured in July 2010 with World Heritage Listing by UNESCO. This was the culmination of more than a decade of work that had been undertaken in the nomination process.

The 11 sites chosen to portray the Australian convict story included in Tasmania, the Port Arthur Historic Site, the Coalmines Historic Site, Darlington Probation Station on Maria Island, the Woolmers and Brickendon Estates and the Cascades Female Factory. Other Australian sites included in New South Wales the Hyde Park Barracks, Cockatoo Island, Old Government House in Parramatta and the Old Great North Road, the Fremantle Prison in Western Australia and Kinston and Arthur’s Vale on Norfolk Island.

All Australians can feel extremely proud of the World Heritage Listing of the Australian Convict Sites. It importantly acknowledges the role played by transportation in the European settlement of Australia, which became the largest forced migration of people across the world. This recognition also pays tribute to the thousands of men, women and children who settled in Australia after serving their sentences and populated their new country, stimulating Australia’s growth and economy.

World Heritage Listing will see an invaluable boost to the tourism industry in all those states that contain such important convict sites from our colonial days. While many of the convicts had committed criminal acts, a great number of them had only committed petty crimes. To many the forced migration program gave them opportunities to reform and participation in the social and economic life of the colony, which would never have been available back where they came from. Many served their sentence through the assignment system and were able to rejoin society and become leaders of the community. Now increasingly large numbers of Australians are seeking to discover their family’s past history and how they fit into today’s multicultural society,

More and more visitors to Tasmania are deeply interested in the heritage and history of Australia. Indeed many visitors travel to Tasmania to trace their convict origins and spend a great deal of time treading in their ancestor’s footsteps.

The inscription of the Australian Convict Sites on the World Heritage Register is only the third such inscription in Australia for built Heritage. The other Australian built heritage sites that have been recognised have been the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building.