NEW NORCIA
The Monastic town of New Norcia established 1847 by 2 Spanish Benedictine Monks as a mission for the local Yued Aboriginals but is now used as a learning centre and can be hired out to groups. The monastery used to have 30 monks and 300 people, but now has 6 monks and 30 people. They own everything, the hotel (built to accommodate visiting parents), petrol station, bakery/general store, surrounding farms, olive grove and press, mill, boys and girls aboriginal school/orphanages, boy and girls boarding school and college. It has a huge history, and the 2 hour town tour was fascinating and allowed us to enter many of the buildings not open to the general public.
View from our overnight camp on the oval $10 per night
Etchings on the walls, see the Aussie Nativity Scene (top right).....the Monks weren’t without a sense of humour
TOODYAY (free camp) NORTHAM (caravan park) and YORK (free camp) Wundowie (free camp)
Toodyay was small and quaint and had a great bakery and massive Christmas shop
Northam was larger and more commercial, but a great river walk and historic buildings...old Mill - as it is in the wheat belt
York was the best.... Note to self..don’t visit historic towns on Mondays as 95% shops are closed. We are going to go back again after Christmas.
The Yorkshire Rose is it’s symbol carved onto many buildings , mum would have loved these miniature pansies
YANCHEP and YANCHEP NP
Yanchep NP is one if the prettiest and oldest National Parks we’ve seen. It has over 400 caves..some can be explored, a lake, kangaroos, koalas, old Tudor style buildings including an Inn and some converted to lodges, and many hiking trails, and an oval for camping.
Crocheted poppies in the Garden of Remembrance, 11 November, in front of the Inn
It is 6 km from the beach at Yanchep which is a reasonably modern town with a few urban housing estates in progress.
Some wooden beams were used from this wreck 1917, in the Yanchep Inn in the NP, now a sign saying $1million fine if you remove any of the remaining wreck
Relic from Alan Bonds failed Atlantis Marine Park 1981, and his vision of Yanchep Sun City.
It is heritage listed and is now going to be in the middle of the new town centre
BULLSBROOK
We are currently camped on a private farm called Little Creek Farm with 6 other caravans for the weekend. Great to have these opportunities for only $10 per night, and so close to Perth.
We had a nice walk through Bullsbrook, and a visit to the nearby Walyunga NP. The first pic “surf and turf”, the town likes it’s Bulls, also still a few wild flowers about
NP, lots of Kangaroos along the river walk trail
Kangaroo Paw found in a small bushland reserve at Bullsbrook, it is the native flower of WA, really hard to find
After a reasonably quiet country feel week we are moving into Perth tomorrow ..beaches, city lights and quokkas
