Blogs from New Norcia, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

After spending over 2 weeks at Carnarvon while we waited for brake pads to arrive from Gympie in Qld!!!! back on the road headed towards Perth. Spent a few days at Kalbarri which is lovely, got a yearly pass for WA national parks which cost $42 with our seniors discount. As it costs $12 for your car to go into a national park we've already got our money back and in front. Natures Window is quite spectacular. Kalbarri is very pretty but windy. Headed to Geraldton next via Dongera, very pleasant drive along the coast. The convict settlement at Lynton has some great memorabilia. The Pink Lake just down the road at Port Gregory is a very pretty colour caused by beta carotene in the water. The memorial to HMAS Sydney 11 in Geraldton is very ... read more

Western Australia may be famous for its vast open spaces and large distances, but fortunately, there are also quite a few points of interest within a two-hour radius of Perth. One of these is New Norcia, Australia's only monastic town, a measly 132km from the big city. The settlement was founded in 1846 by Spanish Benedictine monks as an Aboriginal mission with the aim to 'civilise and evangelise', in accordance with the European ideals of the time. Until 1900 New Norcia was shaped by Bishop Rosendo Salvado. Born in a village in Galicia, not far from the Portuguese border, Salvado entered the Benedictine Order at age 15, where he climbed the ranks from monk to priest and finally bishop, until he was sent to Western Australia in 1846 to establish a bush mission for the conversion ... read more

The Australian outback cultural history since the arrival of Europeans is generally thought of as settlers battering heat and adversity in a hostile environment. Closely associated with this is the heavy drinking guys - miners and farmers etc. European culture has placed an overlay that seems incongruous with the harsh country. The Catholic Church established many mission centres in WA. In the region behind Geralton there seems to be a couple of highlights. In the early 1900 MS Hayes, an itinerant Catholic Proest built a number of churches accross the inland towns as well in Geralton itself. His skill at designing and building these churches are well worthy of recognition irrespective of ones beliefs. The other outstanding centre is New Norcica, Australia's only Benedictine town. When I look at the history it is sad to see ... read more

Easter was a mad rush of people all weekend as Anzac day fell on the day after easter as well. Anzac day is similar to our remembrance day in Canada. Anzac stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps. So, we had 5 days of easter/anzac madness in the hotel. It didn't really feel like easter for me as it was so busy and I was working all the time. On the Thursday Anne who I had only met when I first came here but became a really close friend was leaving. It was a sad day for us all! Our little Irish firecracker! In her place a boy named Oliver from Mauritius came. At the same time the owners two sons Richard and James were also leaving. So, 2 new girls also started. Ashliegh and Laura ... read more

Oh man, I can't even tell you how freaky it is to see a BIG spider looking at you!!! Well, this happened to me one night in the staff "cottage". I was getting up from my chair when I noticed the big SPIDER looking at me with it's beady little eyes. Anne decided the best thing to do is Raid the bugger. So as she sprayed raid on it all these little black things started coming off of it. We thought the spider might be dead but then it started to move and ran into the hallway. All three of were freaking out by this point. We went into the hallway but couldn't find it. We have a big inflatable crocodile in the hallway for the pool as I lifted it as Anne was ready to ... read more