New Norcia & Dongara

It was a slow pack up in Fremantle, mainly because we just couldn't leave without having one more coffee at the Roasting Warehouse. Aaaah yes, now we are ready to hit the road!! The car has been fully serviced, and shod with her new Cooper Off Road Tyres, ready for the next part of the amazing journey.

Wide load approaching.

Wide load arrives.

Today we navigate our way around the outskirts of Perth, headed for the Great Northern Hwy which will take us to our next destination, New Norcia. New where, I hear you say! Well, be as surprised as we were, at this unbelievable town in the WA bush. The drive takes us through the vineyards of the Swan Valley, but we are already carrying so much WA wine, we can't fit another bottle on board! Continuing on, we travel through the Perth Hills, scene of so much recent bushfire carnage. The weather is drizzly and cool, and the road is busy, and full of huge and even huger than huge trucks, transporting equipment to and from the mines. Most of the big trucks have pilot vehicles front and back, the hugest ones get a police escort, as they take up both lanes!!! Twice we are confronted by blue flashing lights coming straight at us on our side of the highway, with a gigantic truck and trailer with 8,000 wheels, carrying a huge thing that looks like it was designed by George Lucas for Star Wars 3!

The Bindoon Bakehaus.

We arrive at the small town of Bindoon in time for lunch. This looks like one of those little towns just an hour or so drive from a big city, where city dwellers and bikies flock on weekends. The new, and very modern Bindoon Bakehaus is a standout, advertising the best pies in the universe. What better to have on a cold and drizzly day. We joined the throng, and found the pie oven had been well and truly raided! We settle for Chilli Con Carne pies, from a range reduced from 20 varieties to 2! They were good, and with a fire in our bellies, we were back on the road to New Norcia.

Arriving at New Norcia.

An aerial photo of New Norcia
today.

I had read about New Norcia a long time ago. It is Australia's only monastic town, established and run by Benedictine Monks, since its establishment way back in 1847, just seventeen years after the first Swan River Colony was established in what would become Western Australia. You are gob smacked from the time the highway emerges from the bush and an array of enormous Spanish, Gothic and Byzantine structures unfolds in front of you. You just look and wonder where on earth did this all come from??

Checking in at New Norcia.

The sky was full of galahs.

We checked in at the Gift Shop. There is no actual caravan park. You can either free camp down by the oval, if self contained, or take pot luck with the facilities behind the roadhouse. Reports on the roadhouse option were not good, so we took the $10 option of free camping, or should that be cheap camping? We checked out all the touring options, and decided on the combo ticket, which gave us access to the museum and art gallery, plus a 2 hour walking tour, which was the only way to get inside all the buildings. We headed down to the oval, and parked. The first thing that invaded the senses was the noise from the galahs and cockateals. There were thousands of them!!

The New Norcia Hotel.

By way of background, I will pass on the basics of what we learned. If you want a detailed look, then go to www.newnorcia.wa.edu.au  St.Benedict lived from 480 to 547 AD. He wrote the Rule of St. Benedict, as a basis for

One of the current 9 monks.

simple community living designed to allow for daily periods of silence, prayer, work, and the slow deep reading of scriptures and approved texts. Benedictine communities have been established around the world ever since. There are apparently 3 orders in Australia. New Norcia is the only full Benedictine community. Today there are only 9 monks at New Norcia, and all but one are not young. Apparently you just don't call the Pope and get a few extra monks

flown in. You have to come of your own free will, with a very good reason for coming, get on with all the other monks, be silent for long periods, pray, study and work for 4 years, giving up all worldly possessions, before being accepted. Good Luck!!

Museum exhibits.

The Abbey.

After securing the caravan we did a short walk around, and then took in the museum. It was huge, and held an impressive array of exhibits. The founding Abbott was a Spanish guy by the name of Rosendo Salvado. In 2014 they are celebrating the bi centenary of his birth, which is the theme of the current museum exhibition. There seems no doubt the old Salvado was an incredible guy. Not only did he get on extremely well with the local aboriginals, he brought them

Salvado's final resting place.

The Abbey Alter.

into his Benedictine community on an equal basis, and educated them and gave them trades, and paid the fair wages. He didn't get on so well with the Bishop of Perth John Brady, who gladly took all the money Salvado raised locally and abroad for his New Norcia mission. Salvado had the last laugh as he successfully petitioned Rome to have New Norcia completely separated form the diocese of Perth in 1859. He was then confirmed as Abbott for life, passing away whilst in Rome in 1900. His remains were returned to New Norcia in 1903, as tradition holds that the remains of the first Abbott be interned in his Abbey. And so it came to pass. The community continued to grow and prosper, and became a centre for schooling, with new buildings added.

Galahs by the thousands!

St Gertrude's Girls School.

That night we returned to a drizzly campsite, surrounded by noise of chattering galahs. Priceless!! In the morning we headed up to the gift shop for our morning tour. Garry was our guide. Quite the character. His first task was to sort out the hangers on who hadn't paid. He politely asked, then told the German backpackers who had time to buy snacks but not a ticket, to head back and get a ticket or stay put! He explained about the buildings. St Gertrude's had been a girls school.

The unique art on the Abbey walls.

St. Ildephonsus Boys School.

It opened in 1908 and the teaching was entrusted to Sister Mary Mackillop's order Sisters of St.Joseph of the Sacred Heart. St. Ildephonsus' College, the boys school, was opened in 1913, and was operated by the Marist Brothers. The schools operated separately until 1974 when they combined to become Salvado College, closing as educational facilities in 2008.We crossed the highway to the Abbey and Monastery. Standing

The monastery building.

on the steps of the

Carolyn admires the Abbey.

Abbey next to a plaque in honour of Salvado, Garry points to the letters O.S.B. after Salvado's name. He asks us what they stand for, and a lady answers, Order of St Benedict. Garry says "thank God. I once had a tour and a lady answered Old Son of a Bitch. I waited for the lightning bolt but it never came. Merciful God!" Inside the Abbey was an impressive alter. The Abbey building has twice been added onto, to fit in the 90 abbots who were here at its peak. The unique artwork on the walls was added in the early 1900's. It is actually etched into

The tour heads to the Abbey.

The Gift Shop & Museum.

the walls, making it almost three dimensional. We went into the monastery buildings, where access is strictly limited to give the monks privacy. We were afforded the privilege of joining the nine monks in the oratory for their midday prayers. That was an interesting experience with all the singing and chanting of prayers and some lovely organ music. This is open to the public any day, and there were a few extra people in the oratory. Sadly I missed the end as I had a coughing fit, which sure broke the silence!! God's punishment???? Back outside, Garry told us about the great Art Robbery. The buildings were, and still are full of artworks. Most are copies of famous works, but there are some real ones, including a Raphael from the 15th Century. They got the robbers and the artworks, but one had been destroyed and most others needed restoration work. Most are in the museum exhibition.

John's cough medicine.

A Bronze of Rosendo Salvado.

After that, I needed a drink, so we headed up to the hotel. This impressive building was originally built as a hostel to house the family of the students at the school. It is now a real hotel, where you can stay. They even sell the original recipe Abbott's Ale, master brewed by James Squire in Sydney. Tastes really good and fixed my cough. The monastery also bakes bread daily, so we bought a loaf, and it is also really good. Actually, the entire community is self sufficient with extensive farming activities from around 6,500m acres they own. Many traditional things have had to be curtailed due to the dwindling numbers of the community. Would you believe that they sold the baker and recipe to Myer! Is that why Bernie Brooks thinks he's God?? But they still do bake a small quantity each day at New Norcia. The wine has been outsourced to a winery in the Swan Valley. We had a great stay at New Norcia, but decided we would not apply for a position, as Carolyn was going to struggle with the vow of silence, and I was no chance on any of the others! On a serious note, it seems unbelievable to us, how few people know about New Norcia. It is on the main northern highway, but it seems a million miles away, but well worth the time to stop and explore, whether you are religious or not.

Historic old Moora Pub.

Carnamah sculpture.

So up the road we headed. We decided we would over night at Cervantes, and have another lobster feed. We are back in the central wheat belt, which is looking lovely after some good rains. We passed through the nice looking town of Moora, tempted to change our plans and stay for the night, but decided to press on, drawn by the lobster. After about another hour, we came across a sign pointing west saying Eneabba 67 Kms. I did a double take and said to Carolyn, Eneabba

Mural on the local IGA Supermarket.

should be 20kms east! Screeching halt, out with the map, missed a turn. Now Cervantes and the lobster feed is no chance. We decide to press on and see what turns up. A town called Carnamah turned up. It had a small caravan park with a delightful manager, who laughed at our predicament and told us that it must have been God's will! So it was snags and salad, not lobster for dinner that night. Actually, Carnamah was another well kept, wheat belt town. There were some lovely murals and sculptures in town. This area is one of the best areas in which to see Western Australia's famous springtime wildflowers, and all the small towns have references to this Spring time event we are yet to see. We were on the road early in the morning, our destination now Dongara, on the coast just south of Geraldton. It looked like a nice holiday spot, with its sister town of Port Denison, a large harbour and lobster fleet. The caravan park we have chosen is right beside the harbour, on the waterfront. The drive over from Carnamah was lovely, as we came through some rolling hills of wheat, with the farmers out in the paddocks with their huge tractors, plowing up a storm after the recent rain. It all looks so different from when we drove down last year in the dry. 

Set up at Dongara before the storm.

Port Denison Harbour.

We stopped at a lovely little bakery in a town called Mingenew for morning tea, and arrived in Dongara just on lunchtime. It was surprisingly warm, but the weather forecast was bad. We set up and were having happy hour when the rain started, and the wind picked up. We debated whether to pull the awning in and take the sides down, but checked the weather maps and they said it doesn't look too bad. Wrong!! We were up at 2.00am. The winds were gale force and we struggled to get the

Old gardeners go potty!!

Dongara Wetland.

sides and awning away. The camp site next to us was blown to bits but the people didn't seem to care! We didn't get much sleep, but thankfully no damage. Another warning to always err on the side of caution! There isn't a lot to see and do in Dongara. Sadly the Lobster business doesn't sell to the public any more or do tours, and there aren't many shops. By our second day, the wind had died down and I was able to put the awning back out. That night, we had another deluge, but thankfully no wind, and in the morning we awoke to find the blue ocean now turned a reddish brown, as the Irwin River

Amazing sight, as the flood
water spread out to sea.

The red stained ocean.

spewed millions of litres of flood water from the red plains inland, out into the sea. It is quite a sight. Surprisingly, the surfers have come out, and it looks crazy as they surf in the reddish brown waves! There are some lovely walks along the oceanfront, one leading to a wetland that has heaps of water birds. It is a lovely walk, with a long staircase which we huff and puff our way up, for a wonderful view up and down the coast. As I write the sun has well and truly emerged, the wind has gone, and the temperature is up in the mid twenties, so it will be out with the recliners, and we'll fall asleep under our books!! What a life it is!!

Mother's Day we are on Skype and talking to mum and the family back in Sydney. Mum looks well, and surrounded by the rest of the family, will have a lovely day. After finishing our call, it is down to the BBQ area as the caravan park is putting on a free pancake breakfast. It is quite a feed, with lots of pancakes, jam and cream, maple syrup, lemon and sugar, and all washed down with a tea, a coffee or a milo. Yummee!!!!!!!

Tomorrow, we head just a little up the road to Geraldton, and the weather looks good.