Parramatta Female Factory (Fleet Street): prison profile
NSW | Decommissioned | Australian Prison Directory
Source-linked profile checked 2026-11-12. Dates and capacities below describe the stated source period, not necessarily today’s available beds or prisoner population.
About this facility
Purpose-built institution for convict women on the Parramatta River, combining confinement, compulsory work, assignment, accommodation and medical care. Occupied in February 1821, it replaced the earlier factory above the town gaol. Its convict-factory phase ended in the 1847–1848 transition to an invalid and mental-health establishment. Later hospital and welfare institutions in the wider precinct are distinct phases, not continuous operation of this prison.
Classification: Historical female convict factory, including prison functions; modern security classes not assigned retrospectively
Contact details
Address: 5 Fleet Street, North Parramatta NSW 2151
Heritage-friends visitor enquiries telephone, not prison enquiries: 0456 787 252
Heritage-friends visitor enquiries email: contact@parramattafemalefactoryfriends.com.au
Council’s detailed history says 1 February 1821; its bicentenary page says 21 February. Month precision avoids an unsupported choice. State Archives gives end-1847 factory closure; common 1848 dating refers to the institutional transition, not a precisely verified last custody day.
Opening, closure and history
Opening: 1821-02 — New Fleet Street factory occupied; exact day differs between council accounts
Closing: 1847 — End-of-year factory closure reported by State Archives; successor transition continued into 1848
1818-07-09: Foundation stone laid; not the date of first occupation
1848-04-01: Staff appointed for successor Convict, Lunatic and Invalid Establishment
1849-12-28: Notice appointing part of the successor establishment as a public asylum
Capacity
Capacity has not yet been independently verified.
Planned or funded development (not operational capacity)
300 female convicts: Accommodation requested in Macquarie’s design brief for Greenway. Reference date: 1817-03. Planned factory and barracks, not verified as-built beds or actual population Design intention only. Do not present as operational or current rated capacity.
Deaths in custody: totals and limitations
No complete facility-level series is established here for suicide, medical or natural causes, homicide, other causes, Aboriginal deaths or combined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths. Missing data does not mean zero deaths. Selected cases below, where available, are not lifetime or reporting-period totals. “Murder” is a legal conclusion and is not substituted for a source’s classification.
Photograph
No verified licensed photograph is installed in this profile. No stock or generated image is presented as a photograph of this prison.
Sources
Using this profile
Confirm visiting arrangements and current contacts with the corrections department or heritage operator. Heritage visitor contacts are not operational prison contacts. General information only, not legal advice.
This directory includes prison complexes and components and is not a complete Australian operational or historical census. Component capacities must not be added to their parent complex a second time.
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