Hearts and heads full of history
Photo by Mike Moores
Six of the hand-made convict bonnets with a connection to the Meander Valley are now on permanent display at the Deloraine and Districts Folk Museum
By Hayley Manning
THE DELORAINE and Districts Folk Museum volunteers are thrilled to announce they have secured a permanent display of six hand-made convict bonnets from Tasmanian artist Christina Henri’s Roses from the Heart project.
Christina Henri started the project in 2007, with the help of volunteers and ancestors across the globe. The creators of the bonnets followed a set pattern to help make the required target of 25,566 bonnets – the total number of female convicts sentenced to transportation to Australia between 1788 and 1853.
Each and every bonnet features the name of a female convict, the ship she arrived on and the year of transport, to symbolise her endurance and contribution to life in an unknown country
More than half of the female convicts transported from Ireland and England came to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), to be processed at a female factory – the Cascades Factory in Hobart Town was the largest – before being assigned to various posts throughout Tasmania.
The Great Western Tiers Visitor Centre selected the six bonnets based on the convict women’s close connection to the Meander Valley area through their work assignments at Calstock, Exton House and Bengeo Estate near Deloraine, and their subsequent descendants that reside locally.
An information sheet provides details about each of the six women, but in many cases their lives became undocumented once they got married. For example, Mary Thompson (Convict 6376), was hired by Lieutenant Pearson Foote of Calstock, Deloraine on 23 July 1844.
She then married Andrew, a painter, but as there is currently no further information regarding a surname, it is uncertain what became of Mary after her marriage. Mary spent time in both the Cascades and the Launceston Female Factories.
The burial places of the six women are listed as unknown, with the exception of Louisa Pointon (nee Wright, Convict 5699), who is thought to be buried in the cemetery of St Mark’s Anglican Church, Deloraine. Confirmation of her burial is still pending.
