Visit the Parramatta Female Factory
Stand within one of Australia’s most significant places of women’s convict and institutional history. The Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct preserves buildings, landscapes and memories connected with almost two centuries of state and church-run institutions for women and children. This site is also recognised as the Parramatta Female Factory, rich in history and heritage.
Parramatta Female Factory Friends (PFFF) welcomes visitors through pre-booked guided tours, selected events, exhibitions and visits to our specialist Research Centre. Because this is a working heritage precinct rather than a conventional museum open every day, please check the current arrangements before travelling.
Choose your visit
Join a guided walking tour
Explore the surviving precinct with a trained PFFF volunteer guide. Tours introduce the purpose-built Female Factory, the class system, work, punishment, health, motherhood, assignment, resistance and the later institutions that occupied the wider precinct. You’ll walk in the footsteps of women who lived and worked at the original Parramatta Female Factory.
Book or enquire about a walking tour
Plan a group or learning visit
PFFF can discuss visits for schools, universities, family-history societies, community organisations, professional groups and descendants. Programs can be shaped around the group’s interests, the time available and current access conditions—for groups keen to explore Parramatta’s Female Factory past up close.
Explore group and school tours
Research a woman or family
The PFFF Research Centre supports descendants, family historians, students and researchers in Australia and overseas. Search the Female Convict Master List before your visit and arrange an appointment if you need access to specialist reference material or volunteer research assistance at the Parramatta Female Factory site.
See what is on
PFFF presents talks, workshops, commemorations, exhibitions and community activities throughout the year. Some activities have limited places and require advance booking, especially for events held on the historic grounds of Parramatta Female Factory.
Before you travel
- Address: PFFF rooms, 5 Fleet Street, North Parramatta NSW 2151, Australia. This is the location of the historic Parramatta Female Factory precinct.
- Tours and appointments: All tours are booked by contacting us by email to confirm the date, time and exact meeting point before travelling.
- Historic site conditions: parts of the precinct may include outdoor areas, uneven surfaces and limited seating within the Parramatta Female Factory heritage setting.
- Access needs: contact us by email before booking so the volunteer team can explain current access and discuss reasonable arrangements.
- Weather: wear suitable footwear and bring protection from sun or rain when your activity includes outdoor walking at Parramatta Female Factory.
- Photography and site use: ordinary visitor photography may be subject to current site rules.
- Commercial filming, wedding photography and organised shoots in the Parramatta Female Factory precinct require permission from the site authority, the NSW DPHI, by contacting them the following email: precinctdevelopment@dpie.nsw.gov.au
A place to visit with care
The precinct is nationally significant heritage and also a place of difficult and living memory. It is connected with convict women and their children, asylum patients, orphaned children, girls confined in the Parramatta Girls Industrial School, Aboriginal children of the Stolen Generations, Forgotten Australians, Child Migrants, women held at the Norma Parker Centre, families, descendants and former residents—all drawn together by the history of Parramatta Female Factory.
Visitors are asked to treat the place, its stories and other visitors with respect. PFFF presents documentary evidence alongside interpretation and acknowledges that records are incomplete, institutional language can be harmful, and people connected with the precinct may understand its history in different ways including the enduring legacy of Parramatta Female Factory.
| Ready to visit? Check walking tours, directions, accessibility and the Visit FAQ before making your booking or enquiry at Parramatta Female Factory. |
Further Reading
Sources and further reading
Australian Government: Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct