The making of This is Eden involved extensive research and is inspired by real life incidents that occurred at the Cascades Female Factory, drawn from records and documents of the time. For more information on Cascades Female Factory, female convicts and the history of Tasmania we recommend the following articles, websites and texts:
‘And the Mortality Frightful’: Infant and Child Mortality in the Convict Nurseries of Van Diemen’s Land https://www.femaleconvicts.org.au/docs/seminars/RebeccaKippen_InfantMortality.pdf
Cascades Female Factory Historic Site: http://www.femalefactory.org.au
Female Convicts Research Centre: http://www.femaleconvicts.org.au/
Kay Daniels, The Flash Mob: Rebellion, Rough Culture and Sexuality in the Female Factories of Van Diemen’s Land’. Australian Feminist Studies, vol 18, 1993 pp 133-150
Joy Damousi, Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997.
Kay Daniels, Convict Women, Allen & Unwin, NSW, 1998
Babette Smith, A Cargo of Women, Susannah Watson and the Convicts of the Princess Royal, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2008 (Second Edition)
Babette Smith, Australia’s Birthstain: The Startling Legacy of the Convict Era, Allen & Unwin, NSW, 2009.
Female Factory Research Group, Convict Lives: Women at Cascades Female Factory, Research Tasmania, Tasmania, 2009
Female Convicts Research Centre Ed. Lucy Frost and Alice Meredith Hodgson, Convict Lives at the Launceston Female Factory, Convict Women’s Press, Tasmania, 2013
James Boyce, Van Diemen’s Land, Black Inc, Victoria, 2014
Convict Women’s Press Ed. Lucy Frost & Colette McAlpine From the Edges of Empire - Convict women from beyond the British Isles, Convict Women’s Press 2015.
Convict Women’s Press Ed. Alison Alexander, Repression, Reform & Resilience - A History of the Cascades Female Factory, Convict Women’s Press 2016.
Convict Women’s Press Ed. Alison Alexander and Alice Meredith Hodgson, Convict Lives at the Cascades Female Factory, Volume Two. Convict Women’s Press, Tasmania 2018
Convict Women’s Press Ed. Dianne Snowden and Jane Harrington, Convict Lives at the New Norfolk Asylum, Convict Women’s Press 2020.
Babette Smith, Defiant Voices - How Australia’s Female Convicts Challenged Authority, NLA 2021.
Convict Women’s Press Ed. Alison Alexander, Convict Lives - Young girls transported to Van Diemen’s Land, Convict Women’s Press 2023.
Original source material (including reports, manuscripts, letters, sermons and convict records) were accessed through the Archives Office of Tasmania, National Library of Australia – Trove, the State Library of Victoria and through the Female Convict Research Centre Database
https://www.femaleconvicts.org.au
https://www.linc.tas.gov.au
https://trove.nla.gov.au