Detailed History - Cascade Probation Station

• 12th February, 1842 - Proposed for sites for new probation stations included “Newman’s Bottom” which had 2,000 acres of alluvial soil, was well watered with a waterfall on the creek, had abundant good timber and free stone.
• 16th April, 1842 - Newman’s Bottom selected as site for probation station to be called Cascade, after the waterfall.
• 3rd March, 1842 - Catechist appointed to station.
• 28th September, 1842 - 205 convicts on station were clearing land and building their own barracks. All buildings were of wood, many of bark and slabs.
• 7th December, 1842 - Lieut Governor approves construction of Superintendent’s Quarters at cost of 35/4/2.
• 2nd December, 1844 - Military barracks for one officer and 75 men proposed.
• 21st July, 1845 - Half-yearly report shows land cleared for agriculture, prisoners‘ barracks under construction, timber being sawn, a military barracks to be constructed.
• 28th August, 1845 - Proposal for construction of quarters for Foreman of Works and store.
• April, 1846 - Trial shaft for copper ore sunk at Cascades.
• 29th August, 1846 - Station had accommodation for 400 convicts.
• 1st March, 1847 - Work to be done included flooring for dormitories, frontage, muster yard. Mess and school to be built between the muster yard and the creek. The mess would hold 200 prisoners and the school more. A chapel for 300 was required. The existing hospital was to be converted into Officers’ Quarters and a new hospital built. The chapel, hospital and Assistant Overseer’s Quarters were to be in the same field. Nine solitary cells with exercise yards on to Pentonville plan were proposed. The Third Class yard would be converted into workshops and quarters for the Overseer of Mechanics. A saw-mill with a 40 foot diameter water-wheel was suggested. The water which drove the wheel would then be taken to the station to augment the existing water supply. New dormitories and mess would be in front of the Assistant Overseer’s Quarters.
• 5th April, 1847 - The sawmill would be deferred.
• 2nd May, 1847 - Separate apartments would be substituted for the dormitories and mess.
• 6th May, 1847 - Convicts at Cascades would be removed and replaced by English convicts from Norfolk Island.
• 20th May, 1847 - The site for the chapel had been chosen by the Lieut. Governor facing the muster ground.
• November, 1847 - Cascades reserved for Norfolk Island convicts.
• 14th November, 1847 - Workshops were constructed of wood and bark.
• 30th May, 1848 - The station held only English convicts from Norfolk Island who were employed “procuring timber for general purposes”. 144 separate apartments and the buildings in general were “of superior class” (ie brick and stone). It was proposed that the boys from Point Puer be there and Point Puer closed. Adult convicts under separate treatment would also be held there.
• 31st December, 1848 - 325 convicts on station.
• 30th June, 1849 - 321 convicts on station.
• 31st December, 1849 - 237 convicts on station.
• 30th January, 1850 - Cascades reserved for men under magisterial sentence who were employed procuring timber.
• 12th May, 1852 - Spare accommodation for 117 convicts from Norfolk Island, which was to be broken up and the convicts transferred to Tasman’s Peninsula.
• 27th May, 1852 - Alterations to the buildings required to accommodate the Norfolk Island men.
• 25th June, 1853 - Cascades for British convicts only. Numbers now will diminish due to end of transportation but station will be required for the next two years.
• 20th July, 1853 - Invalid convicts may have been at the station.
• 1854 - Boards being cut for buildings at Port Arthur.
• 4th February, 1857 - Suggestion that the “recently vacated” Cascade station be converted into an army rifle range. No evidence that this was done.
• 23rd August, 1860 - Deserted buildings were decaying. One building occupied by some constables and convicts.
• 13th June, 1862 - Suggestion that the land, if cleared of recent growth of brushwood, could be used as feeding ground for sheep and cattle. Buildings were “first rate” for the purpose.
• 9th July, 1862 - Proposal to use the buildings to hold the farm animals.
• 17th July, 1863 - Nine convicts farming at Cascade.
• 1st February, 1869 - Cascade listed as Port Arthur outstation, presumable as cattle station.
• 8th April, 1871 - One constable at Cascade.
• 27th May, 1873 - Buildings in bad state, only one row of cottages worth repair.