Our first day out of Perth saw us heading up the Great Northern
Highway passed the Pearce Airforce Base, market gardens and wineries
and on to New Norcia.
New Norcia is famous for the Benedictine Monks and Sisters who set up
the Mission in 1877 to teach Aboriginal boys and girls the European
skills for their future survival. At one time the 900,000 acre
property produced wool, grain and wine. Now most of the land is
either leased, is remnant bush, or pine or sandlewood plantations.
However the monks still produce wine (not the 10-12 thousand gallons
of earlier years, but my Catholic friend tells me they still get
their Communual wine from there.) In the 1900’s it became a school
for farming families. No doubt determined dedication led to a lack of
compromise in some areas, but the respect for cultural differences is
evident in the museum and Art Gallery which contains traditional
European and Contemporary Australian pieces of religious art. The
mission is now a tourist attraction and the monks provide,
freshly baked bread, wines, chocolates and retreats for those who are
looking for renewal of spirit.
After passing through Dalwallinu “Wheat and Wattle” (festival) says
the sign, we headed into station country. Paynes Find gives the first
suggestion of Gold discovery and is also the reason for Mt Magnet’s
existance.
Cue was another gold mining town with reminders of a glorious but
gruelling past. When we last visited on a hot windy day we decided
the cemetry was “hell on earth” – not just because of the many sad
deaths – typhoid in the 1940’s and fathers of young children killed
in mines- but because it was unkept. Now, to our surprise we find
improvements brought about I would imagine by Heritage grants so that
even unnamed graves are neatly marked by a surround of the endless
red rock. (see picture)
A fact about station country for Meekatharra; Grazing pressures on
the land are 13% goats, 38% sheep and the rest kangaroos and I expect
rabbits. No lack of kangaroos here – if road kill is an indication -
at least the Wedgetail eagles and crows are well fed. You know you
are in the outback when the town has a Royal Flying Doctor Service
base and a Frontier Service church. So on we roll.