A major new artwork has been commissioned to honour convict women at the Hobart Female Factory.
Shirley McCarron from the Female Factory Historic Site says $160,000 is needed for the sculpture, which is the first of three pieces planned for the former prison.
Ms McCarron says the artwork will stand in the grounds of the Female Factory, in South Hobart, representing the spirit of convict women.
“[It will be a] larger-than-life-sized bronze scultpture of a convict woman with a child clinging to her skirts, and she’s standing at a glass door that represents her leaving her normal life and going into the life of a convict.”
The second artwork will depict women arriving on Hobart’s waterfront, and the third will comprise a series of plaques featuring convict women’s names, to be placed throughout the city.
Ms McCarron says there is growing acceptance of convict heritage.
“There’s been very little written about the women and not a great deal of interest, and indeed many families didn’t want to acknowledge that they had a woman convict.
“That’s changed dramatically, and people are very interested and wanting to research their history,” she said.
The Female Factory Historic Site Foundation anticipates the first sculpture will be installed late next year.
Tarnished cricket tycoon Stanford ‘living on charity’
Washington, Apr.24 (ANI): Tarnished cricket-loving Texas billionaire Allen Stanford is living on charity, according to his 30-year-old fiancie Andrea Stoelker.
When the FBI found him, Stanford, who was once known for his larger than life existence, was served with fraud charges related to an eight billion dollar Caribbean pyramid scheme, had taken refuge at the family home of his 30-year-old fiancie, Andrea Stoelker, a modest town house that was a far cry from the mansions and castles of his privileged life further south.
Stoelker told The Independent in an interview that the couple has been under siege since the fraud charges were levelled, unable to gain access to any money or even to get back into their homes to retrieve their clothes.
“We’re lucky to be living on the charity of my family at the moment, but it has been overwhelming,” Stoelker told The Independent, in her first public comments since her fianci’s downfall.
“We are very blessed to have a lot of people around us who are supportive, and some great former employees who are standing by him, but it is difficult to get up some mornings,” she added.
Stoelker, 29 years Stanford’s junior, has had to endure open season on her fianci’s private life, including a blizzard of reports about his past philandering and infidelities and about the six children he has fathered by various women.
All the children have been supportive of their father during the past few months, Stoelker said.
The camera crews have gone now, and Stanford is spending more time in Houston, where he is launching his defence, beginning with a string of interviews with US networks this week. The outlines of that defence are becoming clearer.
In his own words: “If anything that was going on wasn’t correct, I didn’t know about it.” (ANI)