Members of the Port Macquarie & Districts Family History Society uncover the past in a new publication Rowdy Voices and Quiet Whispers.
The carefully curated book by Trysha Hanly and Clive Smith records the history of female convicts in Port Macquarie, placing focus on women whose stories were forgotten.
"We had the noblest intentions to tell the stories behind the women," Ms Hanly said.
"To tell the stories of them being real people rather than just a person with a sentence and a crime."
The past 18 months were filled with hard work and investigative effort to accurately report the stories of female convicts.
The book records the stories of 75 women of the 377 discovered to be in Port Macquarie, but this number continues to grow as they delve deeper into research.
President of the Port Macquarie & Districts Family History Society Diane Gillespie said that it is important to record their stories.
"Women have been overlooked for hundreds of years," she said.
"[Trysha] decided it would be a good idea if we brought them to the fore to give them their right place in history and that is what we tried to do with the book," Ms Gillespie said.
A challenge they found was that the main descriptions of the women were opinions.
Words such as 'insolent', 'argumentative' or 'abusive' and more were used for all the women, whether they were or not, Ms Gillespie said.
"We have tried to give the women a voice," she said.
Ms Hanly said that not all women deserved these names because some of the "quiet ones came here, they served their time, they did the right thing. They often married, had children and formed our great community that we have today".
However, she found even though some of the women convicts didn't deserve these descriptions, for others the "labels fit beautifully for them".
Rowdy Voices and Quiet Whispers was launched on February 15.
"It's more a symbol of recognition of these women who were here and who suffered at the hands of authorities," Ms Gillespie said.
The books will be available at the Port Macquarie Historical Museum or through the library.
More information can be found at port-macquarie-historical-museum.org.au/ or (02) 6583-1108.
- This article first appeared in the Port Macquarie News.
