Report on Female Factory

Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
25 April 1827

Four peace officers—two on and two off—are and have been for a long time employed during the night at Parramatta, to parade outside the factory walls. This is done to keep the ladies within—chaste—prevent their getting over the walls in quest of adventures. Notwithstanding this caution, the nuns are adroit enough to evade the watch, even when they have logs on their legs! Constables, we think, might be employed to more advantage on behalf of the inhabitants, who are left at the mercy of thieves, for want of constabulary protection. It appears to be deemed wiser to suppress fornication, than to prevent plunder and robbery, else constables would not be employed on a duty which produces but little good (as their vigilance is easily eluded) in preference to their being kept on the alert to detect street-robberies and house-breakings.


See Original:No title,” The Australian (Sydney, NSW: 1824 – 1848), Wednesday 25 April 1827, p.3