Cascades Female Factory - Fascinating tour of an often overlooked, brutal and very important part of our history. Our guide Hugh was fantastic. You often leave these places not being able to imagine the hardships endured by the inmates but his wealth of knowledge and wonderful passion in sharing the stories of the women and children held here fully conveyed the utter desolation and desperation of these many broken women. A must visit if you are in Hobart

A must do! - Definitely a must on your visit to Hobart, we (4 ladies ) learnt so much from this museum and we're impacted by what we learnt about the stories of some of the women that went through this facility 200 years ago. Also highly recommend the tours, the guides were so knowledge and shared the stories of this facility in an incredibly knowledgeable and compassionate way, thanks.

10/10, vital historical site, beautifully preserved and laid out - The tour was absolutely great! So eye opening and our tour guide Marcel was amazing! She really went into detail about the site and what it was like!

Sad history great museum - Worth a visit with guided tour. This place knows a terrible history that is very sad and interesting to hear. We were glad we had a guide explaining everything. What a cruel period. We liked this place much more than Port Arthur. If you like to know more about the women of Tassie, make sure to pay this museum a visit. Try to place yourself on their shoes…

Strumpets and Notorious Women Tour - Did this on Saturday and can totally recommend this tour. Very informative and the experience was incredibly moving. The lady leading the 1 pm tour was very knowledgeable and passionate about the history and lives of these women. We walked up the Hobart rivulet, which was also a lovely experience as the autumn leaves were falling around us I was privileged to spot a platypus in the creek.

You might not think it, but it’s so worth the time to visit. Pay for a tour though - really bring it to life. - “Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls” was the name of the guided tour we chose to do for this visit. Marcelle was our guide, and she did a brilliant job of bringing to memory of the ladies she spoke about to life. She obviously cares about the women who were detained in this place, and is keen to share the stories of their trauma, and life after their time in the factory. Although there is not much physically to see from the original prison (because that’s what it was), the historical site have done a great job to recreate and depict the layout of how it was when in use. It was so nearly wiped away completely- but thanks to someone who felt it needed to be shared, the site was saved and what is left has been able to start to share the stories of these women and girls.

Uncomfortable but important. - This is not a comfortabe experience. The stories are very confronting. But its a history we should know about. There is little of the actual factory still there. Mostly its lines on the ground. I had one of their hand held audio guides. Unless i held my finger on the screen it kept zeroing back to the start - frustrating. This was how our forebears treated womena dnchildren.

Be sure to take a tour! - The Cascade Female Factory is very different than the Port Arthur Historic Site, but is essential to an understanding of the convict experience. Much of the structure had been torn down until a group of concerned women in the 1970’s petitioned the government to create a historic site. We were fortunate to have one of those women (Marcelle) as our guide on the morning we visited. Marcelle gave an extremely interesting tour, rich with colorful details, that gave us an insight into what these women’s lives were like once they had received a sentence of “transportation” for often small, petty crimes. It was a viscous cycle where random acts could change the course of your life forever. Taking a tour is essential to understanding and appreciating the significance of of this historic site. While the museum does an excellent job and is well curated, we are so glad we took a tour. Pony up the extra $10 AUS and take a tour if you visit.

Disappointing , re-interpreted site and a museum that’s too minimal. Lacking in stories, objects and any feeling. - Disappointing - the museum was too minimal and there’s not enough signage or stories. Another reviewer summed this up perfectly when they compared the level of information provided at Port Arthur vs the Cascades. Where are the women’s stories? The grounds are just an external wall with the interior reinterpreted (I assume) in modern materials (gravel, steel and gabion walls). The matron’s residence is also a lost opportunity to present information and artefacts. The museum is a tokenistic blink and you’ll miss it and what’s with the giant symbolic hair balls in display? Visitors aren’t there to see some artists weird interpretation - we want the real thing, objects and stories that connect us to the past. I couldn’t possibly recommend it to anyone who loves history - save your money and go to Port Arthur instead.

So disappointing. - After visiting Port Arthur and learning so much about how male convicts were treated, we were keen to hear the stories of Tasmania’s women convicts and their lives. We were very disappointed. A totally missed opportunity to tell the story of convict women and their children. A small museum exhibition, almost no signage and short audio explainers, little context and a confused narrative that tries to link aboriginal displacement, convict experience and modern women with little success. A very disappointing experience, and a museum that does not do justice to the women and children who lived and in case of many of the children, died here.