The Crime of Pregnancy

It is difficult to believe that pregnancy was once a crime worthy of punishment, but for many female convicts this was the case. Ann Balfour’s story highlights the problems faced by female convicts whose children were often left behind when they were transported, or born into the harsh conditions of the Female Factory.

Felicity Hickman’s latest instalment in her ‘Female Convict’ series looks at these issues in ‘The Crime of Pregnancy’. Click on the image above to read part four of this fascinating series.

Image: Pregnant Convict, statue located outside the Female Factory, South Hobart. Jody Steele - From the Shadows.

Guest User23 March 2021Comment

George Washington Walker

Narryna has been home to many different people since it was completed in 1840. One of those residents was George Washington Walker; Quaker, draper, banker and humanitarian. While his time at Narryna was short, his influence and legacy in Hobart continues to this day. Click on the image above to read his story.

Guest User20 March 2021 Comment

The Haig family’s female convict servants - Part 3

In the latest instalment of The Haig Family’s female convict servants, follow the story of two more women who worked for Captain Haig. Grace Heinbury and Mary McVicar travelled together to Hobart in 1838, but did they follow similar paths? Find out in part three of Felicity Hickman’s convict women series. Click on the image above to read part three.

Image: Section of Thomas Evans Chapman (1789 - 1864), Campbell Street, Hobart Town

BlogGuest User22 June 2020Convict women, Captain Haig, Hobart Town, Grace Heinbury, Mary McVicarComment

The Portrait of the Sir John Rae Reid

Captain Andrew Haig’s ship, the Sir John Rae Reid was testament to his skill as a navigator and merchant while his house, Narryna, spoke of his instinct for an excellent real estate investment and taste in architectural design. In this blog, Jon Sumby uncovers the story of this enigmatic ‘ship portrait’ which hangs in Narryna’s entrance hall. Click on the image above to read this stroy.

BlogGuest User29 May 2020Ships, Sir John Rae Reid, Ship portrait, Narryna, Captain HaigComment

The Haig family’s female convict servants - Part 2

The second in our series of blogs posts focusing on convicts assigned to the Haig family between the 1830s and 1850s, concentrates on two convict women who arrived in Van Diemens Land with a child. To find out more, click on the image above.

Guest User18 May 2020Female Convicts, Margaret Wright Comments

The Haig family’s female convict servants - Part One

When Narryna opened as the Van Diemen’s Land Memorial Folk Museum in 1957, its emphasis was exclusively on free settler narratives. The Cascades Female Factory at South Hobart has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as part of the serial listing of Australian Convict Sites. Narryna as a colonial household to which women convicts were assigned offers other insights into the experience of convict women. Research to date has revealed the identities of 42 women convicts assigned to the Haig family who built Narryna. This series of blog posts shares research into their lives. Go to our Tours page to book into the tour, Rebellious, Resourceful and Resilient! Narryna’s Convict Women which runs each Tuesday morning. Click on the image above to learn more.

Guest User30 April 2020convict servantsComment

Gallipoli Golfer

Clyde Bowman Pearce (1888-1917) grew up at Narryna and became a champion golfer and the first Australian-born winner of the Australian Open. In 1915 he enlisted and saw service at Gallipoli and the Western Front where he was killed in action. His grief-stricken parents moved from Narryna to Sandy Bay where they dedicated St Peter’s Church (now Wellspring) to his memory. While Pearce’s name appears in lists of World War One casualties, Geoff Armstrong’s post rekindles the memory of the sportsman who became a soldier. Click on the image above to learn more…

Guest User24 April 2020Comment

Narryna the Convalescent Hostel 1946-53

Our first blog entry is topical. Narryna’s path to museum owed much to a world health pandemic. Tuberculosis was a scourge of society from medieval times, which health officials sought to eradicate in post WWII Tasmania.

Narryna was purchased by the Tasmanian Government in 1946 to allow patients to recuperate after treatment for the lung disease, tuberculosis. Click on the image above to learn more…

BlogGuest User20 April 2020TB, Pandemic, Narryna, ConvalescentComment

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