Friends had recommended visiting this town which is the only 'monastery town' in Australia, having been set up by some Benedictine monks in the 1800s. The monks were to set up 4 schools; one girls' school for white girls, one for aboriginal girls, one for white boys and one for aboriginal boys. There are no schools any more in the town. But most of the school buildings remain.
It is really a town full of magnificent old buildings.
The hotel in the town was originally built by the monks as a guest house for parents of the school children who boarded in New Norcia. It eventually became a hotel which included a bar.
The first thing our guide showed us was the Monastery. There are 4 monks remaining, who live here. We could only look through the gate into the courtyard as it is their home after all...
The tomb of one of the founders of this mission, Dom Rosendo Salvador is in this church...
While DH visited the museum, I preferred to walk across the road to get some photos of the building that the museum and gift shop are in...another of those 4 former schools. It was magnificent!
