Ross, sheep paddock

Here we have a sheep paddock

with an empty house in it.



This is a short timeline of the site taken from Parks & Wildlife's web page

c. 1831 brick and thatch huts built for convict gang employed in public works

1833-5 permanent stone buildings constructed to house chain-gang employed on the Ross bridge

1841 site commenced use as male probation station and also housing chain-gangs working on the Hobart-Launceston road

1847 expansion of buildings for female convicts

1853 end of convict transportation

1854 closure of female factory

1855 factory handed over to Police Department

It's the period from 1847-1854 that is the main focus of the displays and most material written about the sight.

There is only one building still standing. Originally, it was two conjoined cottage, each of which consisted of two main rooms with a small room on the back. This is the rear cottage, with a room on either side of the door


and the little room at the back.


The front cottage has been enlarged.


The rooms on the right are the original two roomed cottage (same as the one shown earlier). Two rooms have been added on the left, with a central hallway joining them to the original part, making a four roomed house.


This is the side of the house, originally the back of the cottage. I hadn’t noticed until I was editing this photo, but you can see the doorway that must have led to the little back room (there's a sandstone doorsill at the bottom, and the a vertical line above it shows where the doorway was filled in with stone).

Inside the house is a small museum, but I'll leave that for Mr Squirrel. Anything I write about the site that will be duplicating what has been done better elsewhere on the web, in particular the Parks & Wildlife site and the Female Factory website


Inside, there is a model of the site, the two cottages are at the bottom (the addition is shown with clear walls).


On the Parks site, there's a map that shows the present day remains related to the demolished buildings.