New Norcia Things to Do

great arts collections from european masters and australian contemporary artists can be found here. also small [but a complete ones] gift shop and aboriginal hand-crafted museum.

entrance fee for adult is AU$9.00 it's not allowed to take pictures inside the museum. so, pay a respect, please.

this museum and art gallery consist of 3 floors.

- at the 1st floor can be found the finest religious paintings from european masters. one of the best is raphael art room within a small dark room. the fact of these masterpieces paintings, several of them ever been stolen about few years ago. good that police can caught the robbers and bring the paintings back to its place. but one of them still been missing nowadays. and said that stupid robber can not fit the art work and its frame in the car, so cut it into several pieces and throw them to the trash bin somewhere in perth. what a mad!

- at the 2nd floor, visitors can enjoy australian contemporary art works. altogether with aborigin's brass band, a monk's cell, the abbots throne and interiors of the monks. like vestments for special liturgic occassions.

- at the 3rd floor, there's st joseph's orphanage's exhibition. on displays are including aboriginal hand crafted which were taken from aboriginal school mission [established in 1861]. another display room is about western australia's flowers and foliages by an australian naturalist.

last but not least is the gift shop next to the reception desk. here can be found a complete souvenirs made-in new norcia. from tablecloths to tee-shirt. from simple cotton bag to daily food. like new norcia sourdough, jam and delicious chocolate riccotti.

whenever visit a city, one of my fave activity is pay a visit to local cemetery and watching the tombstones. beautiful graveyard, uniquely carved tombs can be found there.

and i can learn a brief history about a person whenever they still alive, as mentioned in the stones.

it's not different whenever i come to new norcia. from distance, can be seen the white stones field amongst the karri and jarrah trees. so beautiful.

this cemetery lies between st gertrudes and st ildephonsus.

there are monastery chapel and monastery parlour in front of the abbey church. here can be seen the daily life of the abbots. the visitors have opportunity to meet a benedictine monk in the monastery parlour. and in the monastery chapel can have pray with the monks or make confession. it's so peaceful being here.

exploring many historical buildings within new norcia is pretty interesting. as the beauty lies behind the locked doors and only can be visited if you join a guided tour. it's great both taken from religious side and architectural side. the striking moorish minarets from st ildephonsus and st gertrudes looks so gorgeous on the front, but the interiors inside those buildings are worth to be seen closely. in several buildings, it's still using hand-made bricks.

the best way to discover new norcia is join a guided tour. because you have opportunity to pay a visit and enjoy the beauty lies behind the locked doors of several buildings -- which only can be opened by permission from the monks or in the other words, not open for public.

just take daily guided town tour of new norcia, served twice daily at 11 am and 1.30 pm and each tour takes 2 - 2.30 hours. can be asked directly at visitor's centre nearby museum and art gallery. it's cost AU$23.00 when i join this tour.

this daily guided town consist almost all of the historical buildings of new norcia, as follows:
- abbey church and marian shrine
- st gertrudes and st ildephonsus
- cemetery in between st gertrudes and st ildephonsus
- old convent
- central library
- flour mill
- old flour mill
- monastery with its chapel and parlour
- work centre
- olive workshop
- education centre
- new norcia hotel
- road house and general store

Within this monks cell are the contents of Dom James Carrasco, one of the last Spanish monks of New Norcia. He resided at the monastery for 65 years. In his resume he described himself as a ‘helping hand’ (1931-32), gardener (1932-37), driver (1936-42), refectory caretaker (1942 - ). His special leisure activity was watch and clock repairs and in his room were over 100 different clocks, tools and parts. He died in 1996 at the age of 82. The Monks Cell is on the first level of the museum.

St Josephs was loosely termed an orphanage as the majority of girls had parents Over its history between 600 and 1,000 Aboriginal girls attended the school and at any one time, around 50 were in residence and largely from the New Norcia area. It was a tradition of local families to put their girls into St Josephs to be trained and educated and sometimes for short-term emergency care to relieve family pressure. From 1945 to 1958 about 20% of the girls were sent to the school by the Native Welfare Dept, the Child Welfare Dept or by the courts or police. Girls who stayed until their mid to late teens usually left to take a position working in the home of a country family. If a girl wasn’t happy, they were allowed to return to St Josephs. Those with families, often just left to go back to their families.

The Abbey Press is printing department of the monastery and began during the late 1940’s. After using a Platen Press, flat-bed presses and a Linotype machine, a decision was make to move to offset printing during the 1960’s. Throughout much of the years, only one monk operated the Press and it was his full time job. In 1994, the Press decided to go electronic and started Desktop Printing. Once a year the New Norcia Studies journal are set up at the Press with the printing done in Perth.