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| New Norcia Western Australia | |
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 New Norcia Benedictine monastery | |
  New Norcia | |
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| Coordinates | 30°57′10.8″S116°11′27.6″E / 30.953000°S 116.191000°E /-30.953000; 116.191000 |
| Population | 57 (SAL2021)[1] |
| Established | 1847 |
| Postcode(s) | 6509 |
| Area | 146.6 km2 (56.6 sq mi) |
| Location | |
| LGA(s) | Shire of Victoria Plains |
| State electorate(s) | Moore |
| Federal division(s) | Durack |
New Norcia (/ˈnɔːsiə/) is a town inWestern Australia, 132 kilometres (82 mi) north ofPerth, near theGreat Northern Highway. It is situated next to the banks of theMoore River, in theShire of Victoria Plains. New Norcia is the onlymonastic town in Australia, with itsBenedictine abbey founded in 1848. The monks later founded amission and schools forAboriginal children. A series ofCatholic colleges were created, with the school that became St Benedict's College in 1965 later gaining notoriety for being the site of sexual abuse that took place in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The town has many heritage sites and places of interest.New Norcia Station, a ground station for theEuropean Space Agency is located 8 kilometres (5 mi) south of the town. Since a road bypass was complete in 2017, heavy traffic bypasses the town.
On 1 March 1846, a Benedictine mission to the localYued Aboriginal people was started about 8 kilometres (5 mi) to the north, led by the SpanishBenedictine monks Giuseppe Serra andRosendo Salvado. Within a year the mission was moved to where the town is today and on 1 March 1847 the foundation stone of the monastery was laid.
The place was named New Norcia afterNorcia in Italy, the birthplace ofSt Benedict, home to theMonastery of Saint Benedict. Unlike the Italian town, which is pronounced[ˈnɔrtʃa],NOR-cha, New Norcia is pronounced/ˈnɔːsiə/Nor-sia.
A significant diversion of the Great Northern Highway completed in 2017, known as the New Norcia Bypass, diverted heavy traffic away from the buildings and town.[2][full citation needed]
The abbey was founded by two Spanish Benedictine monks, Giuseppe Serra andRosendo Salvado on 1 March 1847. After two years spent among the localAboriginal people, Serra and Salvado came to the conclusion that they could be more easily converted by establishing a mission rather than following them on their journeys.[3] Salvado was appointed the first abbot of New Norcia on 12 March 1867.[citation needed]
In 1886, 5,300 hectares (13,000 acres) of land was leased to Salvado, in order to fulfil his aim of encouraging local Aboriginal people to settle there, become farmers, and eventually own the land. However, after Salvado's death, the new abbot, Fulgentius Torres, turned the focus of the mission away from Aboriginal children, and was more concerned with educating the children of Catholic settlers. In 1949, the Benedictines applied to the government to purchase the land, which the government eventually permitted, despite other competing interests, in order to honour the 1886 agreement with the monks. However, the agreement did not include any ongoing obligation on the part of the Benedictines to ensure that Aboriginal people could use and benefit from the land.[4]
Abbots at the monastery include:
There were also two institutions forAboriginal children: St Mary's (for boys)[10] and St Joseph's (for girls),[11] collectively known as New Norcia Mission. The children were taught mainly practical skills, and after leaving school they often worked at the Mission. The New Norcia Mission was scheduled under theIndustrial Schools Act 1874, meaning that the abbot had "complete control" over the children living there. Both schools closed in 1974.[12]
St Mary's Mission, also known as St Mary's College, was founded in 1848 as aboarding school for Aboriginal boys. Some boys, includingwards of state in the 1960s, were place there by the state government.[13] In his 2021 autobiographical bookGod, the Devil and Me, Alf Taylor (1945–2023) recounts the horrific verbal and physical abuse meted out to Aboriginal boys living in the mission by the brothers and nuns during the 1950s and 1960s. The book was short-listed for the 2022New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Indigenous Writers' Prize.[14]
St Joseph's Native School and Orphanage was founded in 1861 by the monks.[11] Benedictine Missionary Sisters sent from Spain took over in 1904 and ran it until its closure in 1974.[15] Aboriginal girls and young women lived and attended school there, sometimes sent by their families, and sometimes placed there as government policy if they were children of single mothers. The school and orphanage were rebuilt in 1909.[11] There were stories of physical and emotional abuse of the girls at St Joseph's.[4]
The monksLatinised the children's Aboriginal names, making it hard to trace who they were later.[13] From the time of Abbot Fulgentius Torres onwards, the focus changed and tensions arose in how the "orphanages" were being run. Adults were prevented from visiting their children, and in 1907 an incident occurred in which 32 Aboriginal fathers were arrested by police when they tried to storm the mission to see their children.[4]
In 2001 there was a reunion of former residents of New Norcia Mission.[12]
A post office was opened as Victoria Plains in April 1857. Atelegraph line was erected through to Victoria Plains in 1873 and the position ofpostmistress was created. Mary Ellen Cuper was appointed to that position in January 1874. The post andtelegraph offices were combined on 4 March 1874, on the same day that the name of the offices was changed to New Norcia. Cuper was appointed as the first post and telegraph mistress of New Norcia – thus becoming the first Aboriginal person to be appointed to such a position in any of theAustralian colonies. Her health started to deteriorate in the last part of 1875 due totuberculosis so she trained Sarah Ninak – another Aboriginal woman - in all of the required skills. Ninak took increasing responsibility for the duties, and by 1876 was acting in charge of the office. Cuper died in January 1877.[16]
Originally known as the New Norcia Hostel, showcasingneo-classical architecture, the multifacetedNew Norcia Hotel was opened in 1927[17] and was used for the parents of boarders at the town's colleges.[18] It later opened to the public, and by the late 20th century, the New Norcia Hotel functioned as apub.[19][20] It closed in January 2020.[21]
In early 2021,Andrew Forrest's company,Tattarang, via its subsidiary Harvest Road, acquired the land that the government had sold to the monks in 1949, with overA$17 million changing hands for it this time. The new owners said that they were planning to meet with thetraditional owners of the land, theYued people, and discuss opportunities for training and employment.[4]
There has been a number of colleges situated in the town associated with the monastery, situated on the west side of the current main road alignment which passes through the town.[a]
St Gertrude's College was completed in 1908.[22][23]
St Ildephonsus' College was opened in 1913.[24] It operated until 1964 as St Ildephonsus' under theMarist Brothers order.[25][26] From 1965 onwards, it was run by theBenedictines as St Benedict's College.
In 1972, St Benedict's and St Gertrude's become co-educational, with student from both colleges sharing classes, and in 1974 the two became known jointly as Salvado College. Each building was still referred to individually as St Benedict's and St Gertrude's. In 1986 Salvado College became New Norcia Catholic College, which closed at the end of 1991.[citation needed]
The colleges were among those investigated by theRoyal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for historical accusations.[27][28] The colleges were among the worst for historical accusations ofchild sexual abuse of any Catholic institution in Australia. Of the 53 priests who were at New Norcia between 1950 and 2010, the proportion accused of sexually abusing children was 21.5 per cent. That compares with 7 per cent nationally. The figures were contained in a report released by theRoyal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in February 2017.[27][29] During the 1960s, 29 per cent of the clergy at New Norcia had allegedly molested or abused children at some point during their career.[30] There were 65 claims of abuse made about New Norcia, of which 26 were about a single perpetrator. The Catholic Church paid victims $869,000 in compensation.[31][32]
In 2016, a trial in theDistrict Court of Western Australia was told about perverted behaviour by monks at St Benedict's College during the 1960s and 1970s. Brother Dominic "Goofy" Benedict allegedly took indecent photographs of boys and measured one student's penis with a tape measure. BishopMax Davis, who was acquitted by a jury, said Brother Dom would hit boys or push them up against brick walls.[33]
The town of New Norcia has buildings in a Spanish style of architecture, along with some other historical sites. Among these are the two oldboarding schools, St Ildephonsus' and St Gertrude's (both now used for accommodation and various social functions), the abbey church (containing the tomb of Rosendo Salvado), an old mill, a wine press, and the monastery itself.
The town has attracted interest and tourist visits for most of its existence and as a consequence a number of guide books and histories have been produced.[34][35] The visitor and information centre is in the Museum & Art Gallery.[36]
The Benedictine monks continue to occupy the monastery and are involved with most of the enterprises in the town.[36] The last Spanish monk of New Norcia, Dom Paulino, died on 18 January 2010, aged 99. He had worked in the monastery bakery, as a shoemaker, and "in retirement" in reviving the production of olive oil.[citation needed].
New Norcia is respected in Australian culinary circles for its quality bakery (built in 1886) offering bread, nutcake andbiscotti.[37][full citation needed] Also maintaining olive oil production and locally made wines, port and ale can be purchased at the community or from special outlets.[38][full citation needed]
Much of the New Norcia farm has been sold off to pay the costs of damages resulting from the sexual abuse of children who were residents in the boarding colleges by the Benedictine monks.[39]
The New Norcia Museum and Art Gallery is located in the converted buildings of St Joseph's Native School. Beside displaying many Christian relics and historical paintings, the gallery hosts an exhibition of finalists for theMandorla Art Award, the only Australian award solely for Christian religious artworks based on Bible scripture themes.[40] In 1985 the first winner of the prize wasTheo Koning withRe-creation based on the theme Creation from theBook of Revelation 15:3.[41]
In 1986, 26 paintings were stolen. Several weeks later, all but one of the stolen paintings were returned. They were badly damaged, but were eventually repaired.[42]Marc Fennell's 2023 three-part documentaryThe Mission forSBS Television revisited the investigation into the theft, and spoke to former students at the schools.[43]
With decreasing numbers of active colleges, and changes in the organisation of the town, some buildings and sites have been restored and incorporated into a heritage trail within the town. The following buildings are among the heritage buildings situated on the site of the monastery, which is registered on the Register of the National Estate and classified by the National Trust of Australia WA:[44][45][46]
There are twopipe organs located within the abbey buildings. In the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity is a large German organ, built in 1922 by Albert Möser ofMunich, with 34 speaking stops. The organ was designed in consultation with the abbey organist, Dom Stephen Moreno.[47]
The second pipe organ, of 11 speaking stops and much more modern in style, is located in the oratory chapel. This organ was built in 1983 by Bellsham Pipe Organs.[48]
TheNew Norcia Station, a ground station for theEuropean Space Agency, is located 8 kilometres (5 mi) south of the town.[49][50]
Notable people associated with the town include filmmakerWarwick Thornton, who attended Salvado College.[51][52][53]
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