New Norcia

You may have experienced someone telling you about a book; you have a look at it and with some hesitation you read the book and you're blown away, it's better than you ever expected.  This is what Tim and I experienced when we went to New Norica last Sunday.

You drive along the northern highway 132 kms into the wheat belt area of the Victoria Plains and out of nowhere approximately a dozen or so imposing buildings appear, this is New Norcia, it is the only monastic town in Australia.

Two Spanish Benedictine Monks, Rosendo Salvado and Joseph Serra founded New Norica in 1846 as a mission for aboriginal people.  Fulgantius Torres took over the role from Rosendo Salvado and in the early 20th century Dom Torres was responsible for these buildings of New Norcia.

During the 20th century there were four boarding schools:
1. St Ildephosus run by the Marist Brothers for boys and later run by the Benedictine monks;
2. St Gertrudes run by the Josephine nuns for girls until the 1970's when it amalgamated with St Ildelphosus and became Salvado College which ceased in 1991;
3. St Marys for aboriginal boys until the 1970's and
4. St Josephs for aboriginal girls until the 1970's.

Today some of these buildings are utilised for tourism and educational purposes where day programs to overnight camps are conducted for school children and adults.

To fully experience New Norcia I would suggest taking the 2 hour tour, which will take you behind closed doors. You'll see the wonderful art work, architecture, beautifully carved timber furnishings by Juan Casellas and the amazing paintings of Lesmes Lopez. The museum and art gallery also have many interesting items on display including post renaissance works and modern art work.

Looking across from the Museum & Art Gallery which is in the old St Joseph's school building

St Joesph's

The Hotel where you can have an Abbey Ale with a counter lunch or stay the night

The Monastery

Inside the old chapel within the Monastery

Inside the Abbey Church

Painted carvings on the walls in the Abbey Church

The Abbey Church

St Ildephonsus

St Gertrudes

An example of Juan Casellas craftsmanship - dining table in St Gertrudes (photo taken by Tim)

Ceiling in the chapel inside St Gertrudes

Tourist in Your Home Town

Since Brian & Silke left we've had Jennifer and two of her friends visit the wild west of Perth, it's been fantastic to catch up and join them as tourists.

Not only did we visit the usual tourist attractions such as Kings Park, Fremantle etc but we also went to the West Coast Blues. It was one of the few cloudy days we've experienced since being a resident of Perth and it was perfect as a sunny day would have been extremely uncomfortable. The line up included Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Ruthie Foster, Michael Franti and many others.  Most of the artists were fantastic but  some  are at the age of retirement and should very well retire.

It was a smoke free event, though smokers appeared to be rounding themselves up like sheep and going into an isolated fenced area to smoke.

Jennifer & I visited Rockingham, which is about 40 km's south of Perth and travelled out by ferry to Penguin Island that is one of several islands within the Shoalwater Marine Park. The island is a wildlife sanctuary for the worlds smallest penguins, pelicans and other sea birds. Again we were very lucky with the weather as it was a beautiful day with the usual big blue sky and a slightly cool breeze.

Penguin Island is the home to about 1,200 penguins, any injured penguins are cared for within the Discovery Centre on the island. Currently there are 10 of these penguins who are unable to be released back into the wild.

West Coast Blues

Smoking area at West Coast Blues

Penguin Island

Penguin Island has the largest breeding colony of Pelicans in WA

Rocky outcrops near Seal Island 

Penguins within the Discovery Centre on Penguin Island

View from the top of the island to the wharf and the coastline

Visitors

We've just had our first weekend visitors from the east and we felt educated enough to show Brian and Silke some of the highlights of Perth.

After a leisurely walk to Subiaco Farmers Markets we headed to the coast for a quick swim in the Indian Ocean before driving to Fremantle for an ale at Little Creatures. Fremantle is a port city located 19 kilometres south of Perth and like many port cities it has loads of historical buildings with some of them being restored by the University of Notre Dame Australia who occupy these buildings in the area known as West End.

Fremantle has not only maintains its port heritage but has a strong sailing history with the America's Cup yachting race being held here in 1987 and this year Fremantle will host the ISAF Sailing World Championships.

Any trip to Perth isn't complete until you've experienced a sunset over the water, especially if its at Cottesloe Beach.

Sunset at Cottesloe

Fremantle

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Kings Park

Kings Parks is a 4 square kilometre park on the edge of Perth CBD, it is the largest inner city park in the world and it overlooks the city of Perth as well as the Swan River. Kings Park is a mixture of grassland and botanical gardens, with two thirds of the grounds conserved as native bushland.

There are several memorials throughout Kings Park:
* Honour Avenues with the spectacular sugar gum trees and other trees lining the road verges throughout Kings Park. In front of each tree is a plaque honouring those service men who died in action or as a result of wounds received;
* Bali Memorial that is dedicated to the 16 Western Australian victims, the injured and those who helped the survivors of the terrorist bombings in October 2002.
* War Memorial that includes the Cenotaph, Court of Contemplation, Flame of Remembrance and Pool of Reflection.
* Edith Cowan Clock that was built as a memorial to Edith Cowan the first woman elected to an Australian parliament.
* The Kokoda Track Memorial Walk is a tribute to the Australians who fought in Papua New Guinea in 1942 - 43.

As Kings Park is only a 10 minute walk from home Tim & I decided to become members of The Friends of Kings Park which promotes community involvement within Kings Parks. I have signed up to volunteer in the bush regeneration work.

View of the city

Tree top walkway

DNA Tower

Glass walkway

One of the Honour Avenues

Another of the Honour Avenues

Parkland

Australia Day 2011