238 pages, indexed and illustrated. "In 1833 a handful of thatched huts accommodated convict stonemasons building the Ross Bridge. By the early 1840s a large punishment station had sprouted... Between 1847-48 the buildings were adapted especially for use as the Ross Female Factory, which operated as a convict hiring depot, nursery, probation and punishment station. Over the next seven years hundreds of female felons served time behind the conspicuous high security fence until the establishment's closure in 1855."