Founded in 1847 by Spanish Benedictine Monks, New Norcia is 130km north east of Perth, WA, and is Australia's only monastic town.
The town was named after Norcia in Italy, the birthplace of St Benedict.
The Yued, Noongar People
Under the Yued native title agreement, the region starts on the coast of Western Australia and extends inland, encompassing approximately 22,000 square kilometres of land.
Central to the culture of Noongar people and Yued people is the Rainbow Serpent, referred to as Waugal, often depicted as a snake/serpent.
The Noongar people believed that the Waugal created rivers, swamps, lakes and waterholes as it moved about during the Dreaming.
The Six Seasons for the Noongar, defined by weather and food availability, are Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba and Kambarang. In spring, when freshwater turtles, frogs and other such foods were plentiful, the Noongar travelled to water sources. In the winter, they tend to make camps in the hills.
A kinship classification system determined descent (matrilineal) and inheritance, and enforced restrictions on intermarriage between certain groups.
The Yued had six social categories (sections), which operated as general guides to expected behaviour towards kin. Individuals could not marry into the same section.
Totemic increase rituals, were carried out throughout Aboriginal Australia. Rituals were performed by men associated the related totem (for eg: yams -warrain) to maintain or increase the numbers of a plant or animal.
The Yued had six social categories (sections), which operated as general guides to expected behaviour towards kin. Individuals could not marry into the same section.
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| Monop’s mother’s people were Yued. A Southern Corroboree. (DOORDAAROO KE-NING) By Mrs Daisy M. Bates Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Wednesday 25 December 1907 |
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| Tools used by the Yued people. This photo is from the Kwelena Mambakort Aboriginal Corporation (KMAC) Midwest Aboriginal Ranger Program who hosted a Cultural Information Day to teach others about traditions such as bush foods and tool making |
1600s
The arrival of four Dutch trading fleets near the Moore River between 1656 and 1658 is believed to be the earliest European visit to the Yued region.
As Jared Diamond wrote in Guns, Germs and Steel, “Australia is by far the driest, smallest, flattest, most infertile, climatically most unpredictable, and biologically most impoverished continent”. Australia also had no animals suitable to domesticate and so, Aboriginal people remained hunter-gatherers. Humans living with farm animals developed immunity to the diseases they carried.
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| The Dutch had the largest merchant fleet in Europe in the 17th century, Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom - http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/collectie/SK-A-3108 |
Aboriginal people however, had no immunity to infectious diseases such as influenza and measles and had also been isolated from the rest of humanity for 50,000 years. And so, the arrival of Europeans and diseases, such as small, pox and influenza ravaged the Aboriginal populations.
Aboriginal people, as hunter-gatherers, require access to large areas of land. With the development of more and more land for farming, Aboriginal peoples dependence on wild food resources became compromised.
Violent conflicts between Aboriginal Australians and settlers during the colonisation of Australia also had significant impacts.
1830s
To consolidate the liberal regime and remove the religious dominance of Spain, the Exclaustration of 1835, issued on 25 July, suppressed all the monasteries of Spain and led to two Spanish Benedictine monks, Rosendo Salvado and Dom Joseph Serra, coming to Australia.
1840s
In 1845, Rosendo Salvado and Dom Joseph Serra were recruited by Bishop Brady, the first Catholic Bishop of Perth, to go to Western Australia and to begin a mission for the Aboriginal people.
Edward Landor, in 1846, visited the country around "Badgee-Badgee...Mouran pool (New Norcia area):
"We travelled for ten or eleven miles through a splendid grassy country, and met with a large tribe of natives, several of whom had never seen white men before; they were very friendly, and offered us some of their favourite root, the wyrang, which grows abundantly among these grassy hills. They made so much noise, that we wished to get some distance from them to sleep, but they all followed us and encamped near, many of the single men sleeping by our fire."
New Norcia ("Nuova Norcia") was founded in 1848 by two Spanish Benedictine monks, Bishop Rosendo Salvado and Bishop Dom Joseph Serra.
Before this, the monks had lived nomadically for several months with some Aboriginal families. But it was decided that a permanent mission centred around a monastery was needed to encourage the Aboriginal people to become farmers of their land.
Salvado built cottages for Aboriginal families.
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Bishop Salvado's period from 1846 (as Abbot from 1867 to 1900) is one of foundation, New Norcia, WA. |
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| Cottages for Aboriginal people at New Norcia, WA (about 1860s) |
1850s
A post office opened as Victoria Plains in April 1857.
1860s
St Joseph's Native School and Orphanage, founded in 1861, were run as separate institutions by the Benedictine monks and nuns.
In 1867 Bishop Salvado was appointed Abbot.
1870s
Benedictine Missionary Sisters sent from Spain took over St Joseph's Native School and Orphanage in 1904. Aboriginal girls were sent by their families, or sent there as government policy.
Bishop Forres initiated a building programme, and the settlement transformed into a small European-style town of modernist design. The north and south wings of the monastery compound were linked by a central three story building, and the Aboriginal Girls’ Orphanage and the Boys’ Orphanage dating from the Salvado period was enlarged and modernised.
WWI
1920s
The New Norcia Hostel opened in 1927.
1930s
1940s and WWII
In 1949, the Benedictines applied to purchase the land from the government, which was eventually permitted.
1950s
1970s
In 1972, St Benedict's and St Gertrude's became co-educational and were known jointly as Salvado College two years later.
The first Australian Abbot. Bernard Rooney, was elected in the 1970s.
In 1986, Masked thieves bound and gagged the 61-year-old attendant at the art gallery, stealing and damaging paintings. However, as the thieves rented a car in their own names and left a fingerprint at the gift shop, the thieves and paintings were quickly traced. (including works by Murillo, Maratta
and Bernini)
2000s
Construction of New Norcia Station, an ESTRACK Earth station in Australia for communication with spacecraft after launch, began in April 2000. (located 8 km (5.0 mi) south of the town)
In 2001 there was a reunion of former residents of New Norcia Mission.
In 1858 New Norcia was granted spiritual and temporal separation from the Perth Catholic diocese, and many artisan monks living in Perth joined New Norcia.
Aboriginal people were taught literacy skills, and each artisan monk were allocated Aboriginal apprentices to learn such skills as bee-keeping, farm and crop management, carpentry, cobbling, baking, butchering, horse-breaking etc. The girls were trained in areas such as needlework, housekeeping, cooking and other domestic skills.. (1.)
Aboriginal people were then employed by European settlers.
Aboriginal people were taught literacy skills, and each artisan monk were allocated Aboriginal apprentices to learn such skills as bee-keeping, farm and crop management, carpentry, cobbling, baking, butchering, horse-breaking etc. The girls were trained in areas such as needlework, housekeeping, cooking and other domestic skills.. (1.)
Aboriginal people were then employed by European settlers.
Bishop Salvado made his own diaries and recorded daily and important events for fifty years. Bishop Salvado also recorded the local Noongar language, culture and customs.
1860s
St Joseph's Native School and Orphanage, founded in 1861, were run as separate institutions by the Benedictine monks and nuns.
In 1867 Bishop Salvado was appointed Abbot.
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| Brother Pablos Clos holding infant boy "Pat" (Yued people) at New Norcia, WA, 1867 |
1870s
Bishop Salvado's brother, Dom Santos Salvado, joined him at New Norcia after training as a photographer, and many photos recording the people and the mission exist from this period.
In 1870, the Benedictine community of New Norcia had a maximum of 70 monks. (2.)
A telegraph line was constructed through to Victoria Plains (later New Norcia) in 1873.
Mary Ellen Cuper was appointed as New Norcia postmistress in January 1874 (and soon afterwards, telegraph mistress). She was the first Aboriginal person to be appointed this role in any of the Australian colonies. Another Aboriginal woman, Sarah Ninak, took charge as Cuper became ill with tuberculosis.
The New Norcia Cricket Team was established by the Abbot of the New Norcia, Rosendo Salvado, in 1879. The Aboriginal crick players often entertained the crowds before and after matches with athletic displays of throwing and running.
In 1886, 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) of land was leased to Salvado "under exceptional conditions". (caveat that the reserve land would be used for an Aboriginal mission, leasing for one pound per thousand acres)
New Norcia bakery was built in 1886.
1890s
Diseases including measles and bronchitis are reported to have decimated the mission's population in the late 1800s. There are many unmarked graves in the town.
1900s
Daisy Bates (welfare worker and self-taught anthropologist) visited New Norcia in 1903.
1880s
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| Aboriginal family, New Norcia, 1880. Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946) |
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| The New Norcia Cricket Team, early 1880s, captained by Henry Lefroy who would later become the 11th Premier of Western Australia. The star player was Johnny Blurton, back row, second from the right. Johnny Walley is back row, extreme right. Front row right and seated is Felix Jackimarra. Battye Library |
1890s
Diseases including measles and bronchitis are reported to have decimated the mission's population in the late 1800s. There are many unmarked graves in the town.
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| Old Spanish Master and his Violin Class of Native Boys at New Norcia(WA.). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 16 March 1895 |
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| A COURTYARD OP THE BENEDICTINE MONASTERY AT NEW NORCIA, WA, W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 - 1922), Saturday 20 May 1899 |
1900s
In December 1900, Bishop Salvado died in Rome. His successor was Bishop Fulgentius Torres, an admirer of art and architecture. Torres turned New Norcia away from Aboriginal residents and towards the education of Catholic settler children.
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| "BOB," AN ABORIGINAL 86 YEARS OLD WHO SHOWED THE LATE BISHOP SALVADO THE SITE OF NEW NORCIA. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Saturday 10 June 1905 |
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| Bridge at New Norcia, WA, swept away in 1905, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Saturday 29 December 1906 |
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| Primitive wool press, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Saturday 29 December 1906 |
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| BENEDICTINE MONKS, NEWNORCIA. From a block kindly lent by the " W A. Record "Newcastle Herald and Toodyay District Chronicle (WA : 1902 - 1912), Saturday 3 February 1906 |
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| The Mission Station, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Saturday 29 December 1906 |
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| The school for girls, New Norcia. WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Saturday 29 December 1906 |
REPORT OF NEW NORCIA MISSION FOR YEAR 1906-1907.
The work accomplished at the New Norcia Missionduring the year 1906-7 on behalf of the aborigines,has been very satisfactory. The boys are kept at school until they reach the age of 14. They are there taught the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic, besides being well grounded in the Christian Doctrine. Their natural aptitude for music is utilised in the church e Church services, a choir being composedof the young natives.The male natives over the age of 14 are employed in various capacities in the Mission. They are taught carpentering, boot-making, gardening, and farming in all its branches, also the care of cattle, horses, and sheep, and the management of the different steam-driven engines and machines. Last year one of the natives secured an engineer's certificate. Their different sports clubs are in a flourishing condition, and they have proved themselves formidable rivals, both in the cricket and football field, to visiting teams from the surrounding districts and from Perth.
The native girls are trained and educated by theSisters. They reside at the Convent until they aremarried. There, besides receiving a good elementary education, they are well instructed in all the domestic duties, such as needlework, laundry work, cooking, dressmaking, etc., and the general care of a home (?). During the year they secured four first prizes for their exhibits of needle-work and cooking at theVictoria Plains Show.The general health of the natives of the Mission during the past year has been excellent."
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| Monop also known as Manop, Monap and William Monop was born around 1843 near Gnirgo / Nergo Spring which was 20 km east of New Norcia. WA. He was of the Giragiok 'family', and Ballarruk section of the Yued people. On 5 May 1864 he 'came in from the bush’ to the New Norcia Mission and asked to stay. Monop stayed at the mission for around 10 years. He worked many different jobs during these years including shearering, crop-farming, carpentering, skilled horsebreaking, and carting and played on the cricket team. He also took young men to the bush for ceremonial activites on a regular basis. 1907 |
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| Native girls, New Norcia Mission, WA, Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 - 1916), Tuesday 16 July 1907 |
In 1908 St. Gertrude’s Girls’ College (Neo-Gothic style) opened at the mission directed by the Australian order the Sisters of St. Joseph.
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| The main gateway, New Norcia Mission, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Saturday 19 December 1908 |
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| A family from New Norcia, WA, Catholic Press (Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1942), Thursday 28 October 1909 |
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| SOME YOUNG VIOLINISTS. ST. GERTRUDE'S LADIES' COLLEGE. NEW NORCIA THE RECENT MUSICAL EXAMINATIONS. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Saturday 14 January 1911 |
In 1913, the Boys’ College. St. Ildephonsus College (Byzantine style) opened under the direction of the Marist Brothers.
Bishop Forres died in 1914.
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| Miss Eileen Byrne, Aged 13 1/2 years, pupil of the Sisters of St. Joseph, New Norcia, who has just passed higher local examination, Trinity College, London.W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 - 1922), Saturday 28 August 1915 |
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| PTE. N. F. DONALDSON,Recently wounded in France. First pupil of St- lldephonsus* College, New Norcia, to join the forces. He had four months in Gallipoli. Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 6 August 1916 |
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| W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 - 1922), Saturday 12 October 1918 |
1920s
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| The library, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 3 June 1920 |
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| The music room, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 3 June 1920 |
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| The mission church, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 3 June 1920 |
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| The girls college, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 3 June 1920 |
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| Boys college, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 3 June 1920 |
Daisy Bates wrote various newspaper articles praising New Norcia in the 1920s.
She also wrote: "Missions of all kinds were established throughout the Bibbulmun area. The most outstanding of these was undoubtedly the great Benedictine Mission of New Norcia, 80 miles north of Perth, founded by Don Salvado in 1846, among the dingo-totem tribes of the Victoria Plain." here
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| Monop of New Norcia and the Victoria Plains, WA (Daisy Bates met William Monop in Perth, around 1906, in the course of researching her major opus, The Native Tribes of Western Australia) |
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| THE NEW NORCIA ABORIGINAL FOOTBALL TEAM. Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 26 July 1925 |
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| The New Norcia Team, WA, Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 26 February 1928 |
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| New Norcia conducted a special service and religious procession to celebrate Western Australia's one hundredth birthday. Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 9 June 1929 |
1930s
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| A 16th century Choral Missal In vellum, illuminated in colour and with Gregorian music beautifully inscribed, which is to be displayed at the Antiques Exhibition. It Is from New Noreia.West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Saturday 26 November 1932 |
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| Panoramic View Showing the Hostel,Convent, College and Chapel at NewNorcia, WA, Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 1 January 1933 |
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| Peter Chatter, an aboriginal fiddler, playing to some Roman Catholic pre-lates who visited New Norcia last week. He says that he was taught toplay the violin by Bishop Salvado, the founder of New Norcia. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 26 October 1933 |
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| Native houses, New Norcia, WA, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 26 February 1936 |
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| A RELIC OF OTHER DAYS. An olive crusher at New Norcia, W.A., built by Bishop Salvado in 1860. It was worked continuously for 70 years until 1929. Power was supplied by a bullock, and the olives were placed in a pan for crushing. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 2 April 1936 |
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| The St. Ildephonsus's College (NewNorcia) tenm this year's premiers in the Victoria Plains Football Association. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 4 November 1937 |
1940s and WWII
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| Girls from New Norcia, WA, arrived in Perth by buses to begin their mid-winter holidays, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 10 July 1941 |
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| Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 - 1954), Monday 7 September 1942 |
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| Statue of St. Benedict' at New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 28 February 1946Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 28 February 1946 |
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| The gateway to the Benedictine Monestery, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 28 February 1946 |
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| Native Mission Brass Band, New Norcia, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 16 May 1946 |
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| The only West Australian member of the Australian Women's Army Service who will participate in the Allied Victory March to be held in London, Corporal Hird, was educated at St. Gertrude's, New Norcia, WA, West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Thursday 4 April 1946 |
1950s
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| Cronin, the umpire, during the New Norcia half-time interval, handball game, at their match against Scarborough at Inglewood, OvalWest Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Monday 15 September 1952 |
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| New Norcia, WA, Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 9 April 1952 |
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| The music room, New Norcia, WA, Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 9 April 1952 |
1970s
It is estimated more than 2,000 Aboriginal children passed through the New Norcia mission schools from the 1860s until the early 1970s.
1980s
and Bernini)
2000s
The last Spanish-born monk at New Norcia died in 2000, aged almost 100.
2017: A diversion of the Great Northern Highway, completed in 2017, diverted heavy traffic from the town.
2017: The royal commission in 2017 into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found the Benedictine Community of New Norcia one of the nation’s worst historical child sex offenders.
There were 65 claims of abuse made about New Norcia, of which 26 were about a single perpetrator.
In 2021, Andrew Forrest's company, Tattarang, acquired the land that the government had sold to the monks in 1949 for more than A$17 million.
2022: New Norcia's Benedictine Monastery Precinct is being considered for inclusion on the State Register of Heritage Places.
2017: The royal commission in 2017 into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found the Benedictine Community of New Norcia one of the nation’s worst historical child sex offenders.
The commission found one in five Benedictine priests between 1950 and 2010 were alleged child abusers – triple the national average for Catholic institutions.
2012: Alf Taylor, in his book, God, the Devil and Me, details horrific verbal and physical abuse at the mission by the brothers and nuns during the 1950s and 1960s.
Around New Norcia
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| The New Norcia Hotel, WA, was built in 1927 as a hostel for the parents of boarders attending local collages. Later teh building transformed into “a practical expression of the Benedictine tradition of hospitality”, with 15 rooms, a bar and restaurant |
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| Gothic revival girls' school (St Gertrude's), designed by the second Abbot of New Norcia, WA, Fulgentius Torres, originally opened in 1908 |
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| New Norcia, WA |
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| The Church at New Norcia, WA, dates from 1861 but the facade is later |
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| Museum at New Norcia, WA, denisbin |
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| The monastery courtyard at New Norcia, WA |
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| The 35 m-diameter dish antenna of ESA’s deep-space tracking station at New Norcia, Australia, illuminated by ground lights against the night sky on 3 August 2015. European Space Agency |
Things To Do and Places To Go
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