A Day Trip from Perth – New Norcia
If you are looking for a day trip out of Perth and you want to visit somewhere tranquil, beautiful and totally unlike anywhere else in WA then why not take a drive up to the Benedictine Monastery town of New Norcia?
New Norcia (pronounced “Nor-CEE-ah”) is around 130 Km’s north of Perth along the Great Northern Highway and it’s a pleasant enough country drive to get there, the only slight annoyance being that a lot of noisy, lumbering road trains take this route. The Town itself – although “Town” might be putting it a bit strong given the size of the place – is a collection of Spanish style buildings founded by the Benedictine Monks in the mid 19th century. There are all the buildings you would expect, a monastery, church, library and college and they are all beautifully constructed in a genuine Mediterranean style that is quite unlike anything in Perth.
There are daily guided tours of the town at 11am and 1:30pm which take 2 hours and cost $23 per adult and these are worthwhile as they give access to buildings that you wouldn’t otherwise get to see. There is also a decent museum which houses a range of modern & contemporary art. They hold a fair selection of classical “Madonna and Child” type paintings and also some interesting modern stuff – the stand-out piece for me being an arrangement of 2002 small pictures of Christ which when viewed from a distance form one large picture of his face. It’s called “Search Engine” but I’m sorry to say I can’t remember the artist’s name – I will correct this soon. There is the obligatory gift shop that sells the excellent locally baked bread and even bottles of Benedictine-style port (“now with 10% more holiness!”).
You can have lunch at the New Norcia Hotel, which is situated in a grand old Spanish style building that you could easily imagine being overrun by banditos in a spaghetti western movie! The menu is nothing special but, on the plus side, it does serve strong ale brewed by the monks, served in what looks like a brandy glass. You wouldn’t want to drive after a couple of those…
New Norcia is a wonderful little place. The combination of beautiful European architecture and the unlikely setting of the West Australian countryside with its huge blue skies and green pastures is a delightful one and, whilst I’m not a religious person, there is a real feeling of peace and tranquillity about the place. Small wonder then that the motto of the Benedictine monks is “Pax” – the Latin word for peace.
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Themocracy
What beautiful images ! Totally unexpected to find a place like that in Australia.
Thanks for sharing.
Elbee
Thank you Elbee. Normally, the further you travel North of Perth the more the countryside gets more sandy and desert-like. Such a surprise to find such a green and tranquil spot like New Norcia up there.