Next stop was New Norcia via Northam, Toodyay (pronounced Toojay) and Bindoon. New Norcia is described as a little bit of old Spain in the middle of the Australian bush. In 1847 a Benedictine Monk from Spain named Rosendo Salvado, who had come to Australia to be a missionary, was asked by the Bishop of Perth to start a Mission to support the Indigenous community of this area about 150km north east of Perth. As you do, Rosendo and his assistant put together what supplies they could and set off on foot through virgin bushland. Their supplies ran out and they decided to befriend the “locals” and stay. The rest is history. Over the next 50 years Rosendo and his band of “merry men” built, mainly with their own hands, a town which provided religion, education
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