Where:

New Norcia

Western Australia, Australia

New Norcia is Australia's only monastic town. It lies 132km north of Perth, Western Australia. Traveling by car on the Great Northern Hwy it takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to reach.

Last Visited:

We stopped here on our west coast adventure in 1999.

Why Go:

New Norcia is a beautiful heritage listed monastery town north of Perth. You may pass through it if you take the inland northern route when heading north in WA.

Highlights:

• Walking Tour: It has many historic buildings to wander around. It is only a small place so you will find your way around it quite easily. There is a pamphlet describing a walking tour available from the museum shop.
  

• Art Gallery and Museum: This is excellent and highly recommended. There is a fascinating history of the Benedictine Monks downstairs, and a world class art gallery upstairs.

• New Norcia Hotel: You can stay at the historic hotel as we did, or just enjoy a beer on the balcony. This hotel was constructed in 1927 for Queen Isabella of Spain. While you are here, sample one of the New Norcia wines.

Lowlights:

• In summer, it can be a bit hot, dry and dusty, but that shouldn't stop your enjoyment.

Eating & Drinking:

• Nice meals are available from the hotel, or you can buy snacks from the roadhouse.

Other things you should know about:

• There is a public bus that passes through here, but it doesn't travel every day.

• We liked the place so much, we got married here in January 2004!

• A site just south of New Norcia has been chosen to build a $40 million satellite dish and tracking facility to guide the Rosetta probe to meet the comet Wirtanen in 2011.

More information:

• More information about the place can be found on the following website: www.newnorcia.wa.edu.au/index.htm

• Photos from around New Norcia.