“The Australian Heritage Council will meet in Canberra very soon to consider nominations made under the 2013-14 call for nominations to the National Heritage List,” Ms Owens said.
“I believe that a strong case has been made by the nominators for the Female Factory’s inclusion on the list of sites to be considered for assessment of their National Heritage value.”
Ms Owens said she would write to Minister Burke to ask him to include the Factory on his final priority assessment list for heritage assessment in the current round.
“The Female Factory is the earliest surviving convict women’s site in Australia; it has been a significant place of continuous use by women in Australia for the last two centuries and prior to the arrival of Europeans. It is a place where Australian identity was forged."
The Factory was commissioned by Governor Macquarie, designed by Francis Greenway and between 1-in-5 and 1-in-7 Australians have an ancestor who spent time there.