After returning from Sydney, Heidi and I visited Australia’s only monastic town, New Norcia. It was founded over 150 years ago as a Spanish Benedictine Catholic mission and it’s heritage listed for its architecture and historical significance.
Seriously, would you ever expect to see something like the Abbey Church out in the middle of the rural Western Australia?:
Our trip was fairly routine; We went on a walking tour of the town, peroused the art gallery (a weird mix of old painting and donated modern works), attended Vespas (evening prayer with the monks), stayed overnight at the hotel, walked a bit of the heritage trail, and made sure to pick up some famous New Norcia Bread before heading home.
Overall, the entire trip was very relaxing. The thing that struck me was that it’s just so much quieter out there than in Perth (which itself is an order of magnitude quieter than Sydney).
Continue reading for a few more notes and couple more scenic photos.