New Norcia

It was just 160 km to New Norcia, a place I have always wanted to visit after reading so much about the monastery and the buildings that make up this town. All the reading and information you can gather does not prepare you for how grand and remarkable this place truly is.
 
You don't have to be a Catholic to appreciate this special spot, and if you ever find yourself in Western Australia, a visit to this town should definitely be on everyone's bucket list. It is located about 132 km northeast of Perth in the wheat belt.
 
The town or estate covers 41 square kilometres, and twenty-seven of the buildings are listed on the heritage register. All the revenue generated is reinvested in the estate for the monks' operation. 

New Norcia was founded in 1874 by Spanish Benedictine Monks led by Rosendo Salvado. In those early years, there were eighty monks living here; today, there are only ten.

 

You can explore the town at your own pace, but to truly appreciate and learn about its history, a guided tour is essential. Our $45 ticket included a two-hour tour, as well as access to the museum and art gallery, which we could visit as often as we liked. The tour also allowed us to see the interiors of many buildings that are generally not open to the public.

 

We dined at the hotel on our first evening. Built in 1927 and funded by the Queen of Spain, she planned to visit once it was completed, but never did. All the doors, including the staircase to the second floor, were oversized to accommodate her huge flowing dresses.

The Abbey Church contains the marble tomb of New Norcia's founder, Rosendo Salvado. One of only two large Moser organs built in Germany and imported to Australia in the 1920s is also located in the church and is often played by one of the monks.

The visitor centre features an art gallery, museum, and a well-stocked gift shop. It also contains works by European masters and gifts from the Spanish Queen.

This chalice was presented to Rosendo Salavado by Queen Isabella II of Spain in 1857.

This Gothic-style chalice was presented to Abbot Fulgentius Torres by Pope Pius X in 1910. Abbot Fulgentius Torres was the second abbot after Salvado, who died in December 1900.

This ivory crucifix belonged to Fr Santos Salvado, Chaplain of Her Majesty Queen Isabella II of Spain, and he donated it to the New Norcia mission in November 1868.

This crown which is silver plated with semi-precious stones belonged to D. Pablo Martinez, personal Chaplin to Queen Isabella 2nd of Spain. 1868

The gift shop features locally sourced gifts and a selection of New Norcia's produce, including Olive Oil, Abbey Wines, bread baked on the estate, and Abbey Beer with an alcohol content of 7.3%. The grapes are cultivated south at Bindoon, and the wine matures in the cool cellars beneath the Monastery. 

The Monastery residence is the home to the Benedictine Monks and is a restricted area; however, we were encouraged to take photos of the courtyard.

St Ildephonsus College was also designed by Abbot Fulgentius Torres and originally served as a boys' boarding school operated by the Marist Brothers. The chapel is splendid, and the murals painted on the walls and above the altar are simply breathtaking.

St Gertrude's College was also designed by Abbot Fulgentius Torres. It was initially opened as a girls' boarding school, with the murals in this chapel being more feminine but still spectacular. 

This scrub roller was drawn by horses to loosen and flatten scrub in preparation for burning and clearing.

And this wine press was used on the Benedictine Community's estate south-east of New Norcia.

The current Abbot is Father John Herbert, the 7th Abbot of New Norcia, and we were told on our tour that he speaks ten different languages fluently.
 
Being self-sufficient, we were able to camp on the oval for just $10 a night. If you needed power, toilets, and showers, it was $20 per night behind the roadhouse.

Mount Augustus

We were now heading towards Mount Augustus National Park, which was a further 269 km away. After leaving the Kennedy Range National Park access road, we continued north. 

 

The Ullawarra Road would lead us past Mount Sandiman towards Mangaroon Station, then turn east past Gifford Creek and Cobra Stations before entering the national park.

The drive took five and a half hours to complete and was very rough, with many sections of quite severe corrugations and numerous floodways. All the floodways had a mixture of heavy corrugations before and after, with rough and rocky bases. We caught our first glimpses of Mount Augustus from 45 km away. It's twice the size of Uluru but is covered in greenery, unlike Uluru, which is completely bare. 

During our stay at Mount Augustus, we encountered strong, gusty winds, so we decided against attempting the summit climb. However, we did the 46 km loop road around its base to visit the smaller tracks and sites.
 
The campground is privately owned and located just outside the national park. It is part of Mount Augustus Station, which spans over 1.25 million acres and was established in 1887.
 
We opted to camp in the non-powered section for $22 per night. There is also a lovely grassy area where you can camp with power, but the only restriction is that no wheels are allowed on the grass.
 
Wiki Camps lists the following services here, including a dump point, drinking water, mobile phone coverage, and internet access. This information is incorrect, as none of these facilities are available. Diesel fuel was available at $1.75 CPL, which was reasonable.

Cattle Pool is a permanent waterhole on the Lyons River and is a surprising feature in this very dry and harsh country. It attracts corellas and many water birds, and both sides are lined with huge river red gums.

We left Mount Augustus heading south through the Aboriginal community of Burringarrah, then drove past Landor Station, which was hosting its annual picnic races. From there, we turned west past Dalgety Downs before joining the Carnarvon Mullewa Road as we continued further south. 

This road remained quite good, with only minor corrugations and the occasional bull dust hole. It was certainly nothing like the poor conditions we had experienced from Kennedy Range. 

We stopped for lunch at Bilung Pool, another surprise in this dry landscape. Drovers spent months bringing cattle and sheep down from the De Grey and Ashburton areas to markets in the south, and this spot was a true oasis along the way. Apart from providing water for the stock, this spot would have been a pleasant place to spend a few days.

Well 19 was part of a series of wells dug along the stock route to supply water every 12 to 20 kilometres. A total of 52 were excavated, each capable of watering 3000 sheep or 300 cattle. This particular well was drilled to a depth of 33 feet.

By the time we reached the Murchison Roadhouse, I was ready to call it a day. $15 for a non-powered site and camping on lovely green grass was a very welcome change.

Towards Kennedy Range National Park

We were reluctant to leave Warroora Station, but we plan to be home by mid-November, with more to see along the way.
 
We stopped at the Minilya Roadhouse to refuel at a very reasonable 1.39 CPL. From there, we continued further south before turning inland onto the Carnarvon Mullewa Road. We detoured into Rocky Pool, just 4 km off the main road, to have lunch. The pool is located on the Gascoyne River, and upon our arrival, we found four different groups camping there.
An entry from Wiki Camps from 2016 suggested that camping was no longer permitted here, but there were no signs indicating otherwise.

Our camp for the evening is at the Gascoyne Junction Roadhouse. All the facilities are new, but at $43 per night for a powered site, it's a bit steep, although they do have a captive audience. Still, it was convenient for us, as Ros caught up by doing seven loads of washing in our van's washing machine, with another two the following morning. It also gave us the chance to fill our tanks.

A significant amount of money has been spent on this park and roadhouse, but unfortunately, no one is performing any maintenance. Weeds are growing through all the rockeries, the dump point was overflowing when we arrived, and the shelves in the roadhouse were nearly empty, with only a few items here and there. We had a late start this morning. Most of last night's campers had already left the park by the time we departed at 9:30. 

We stopped briefly at the roadhouse to refuel with diesel at $1.49 per litre. It was an automated process, where you supply either your debit or credit card and specify the amount you wish to purchase. After yesterday’s drive of 395 km, today’s journey was just 60 km. We planned to spend time at Kennedy Range National Park. Before leaving the park, we reduced our tyre pressures. 

The first 48 km north of Gascoyne Junction had only minor corrugations and rocky patches until we turned west onto the 12 km access road to the national park. From here to the Temple Gorge campground, the road was very rough with quite severe corrugations. What is it about access roads into national parks? They deter visitors by making the roads as difficult as possible.

The Temple Gorge campsite was nearly full by the time we arrived. Roger, the camp host, found us a spot that needed quite a bit of reversing to manoeuvre the van into. 

Adjacent to the campground is Temple Gorge, so after lunch, we headed up through the gorge to its far end. There was quite a bit of climbing and scrambling over rocks, but we finally reached the end. We could see that, under the right conditions, the end of the gorge would feature a waterfall and a pool.

Access within the park is quite limited, with only two other gorges to explore. Drapers Gorge is located south of the camping area, while Honeycomb Gorge is several kilometres to the north. The range escarpment extends both north and south from the campground, and looking at the maps, it appears to cover over 80 km.