New Norcia

Welcome back to your regular programming… From Fremantle we headed North to the settlement of New Norcia. Both Duncan and I were amazed to learn that the entire town is not actually a town at all! It’s completely owned and managed by the Benedictine Monks who live there. There are currently 9 monks who are responsible for organizing the entire site – the rubbish bins, bakery, farmlands, roads, hotel, roadhouse, art gallery, and gift shop. They no loner perform all the duties themselves, but they are financially responsible for the lot. There are 2 beautiful churches, the monastery and 3 different schools, as well as a whole heap of other buildings – a bakery, mill, farmhouses, etc.

They have guided tours each day at 11.30 and 1.30 and we intended to leave Fremantle and get Bertha all tucked up in the ‘free camp’ there in time to make the 1.30 tour. Thanks to a whole heap of roadworks and a very poorly-timed phone call to my mother during which I forgot to give Duncan the direction to turn, we didn’t make it in time. We have learnt to cross-reference our Garmin GPS and iPhone Google Maps with a good dash of common sense. This meant that neither device was giving the right directions. And somehow… neither was I!!

So we missed the tour. Which wasn’t a problem as it was bucketing down with rain and we ran into some other big-rig friends and had a lovely evening with them. The kids did some schoolwork the next morning and we made it in time for the NEXT tour.

They have an Art Gallery with a wonderful collection too – contemporary religious pieces and numerous traditional pieces as well, including a Raphael sketch. We had a wonderful morning touring the gallery and then going on the tour. The monastery was founded by 2 monks, who sailed over from Spain and walked up from Fremantle and finally stopped in the middle of nowhere. They had a wonderful relationship with the local aboriginals and had one of the first schools to educate them in Western ways. The first 2 postmasters of the town were actually postmistresses and aboriginal women! How cool is THAT?! Over the years it has changed from a thriving monastery with up to 90 monks and three different schools (girls school, boys school and aboriginal school) to the much quieter settlement it is today. They are very open about their history – having had such a good relationship with the local aboriginals in the early years, the government of the day later used their school for many children from the stolen generation.

Today it is a bit of a ghost town, though it is used for school camps and there is a tertiary learning centre there. The tour was really interesting, though I did forget to pack some food for the hungry boy in the family. Poor Angus was ready to eat his own arm again. Whoops!

As hungry as he was, he was still happy to wait to see the “Oversize” vehicle that passed us on our way back to Bertha. Duncan was VERY pleased not to be facing this one on the road! He’s not entirely sure how he would have tackled that – it stretched wider than the ENTIRE road.

We had a yummy lunch of cuppa soups with delicious bread from the monks and then moseyed a little bit further down the road to another free camp on the way to Jurien Bay.