THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
New Norcia, in Western Australia, was a mission and township set up by Spanish Benedictine monks Rosendo Salvado and Joseph Serra in 1847. Located 132 kilometres north of Perth, it became an important spiritual and educational centre comprising several colleges and orphanages. The Benedictine community also established a mixed farm to supply the refectories with meat, grain, and fruit. After 1901, new energy and investment by Father (later Abbot and Bishop) Fulgentius Torres saved the settlement from decline. It was well established as a wine producer and won a first certificate for a constantia at the National Show. Among grape varieties grown was ‘Black Cluster of the Wortley Hall kind’, an heirloom variety (possibly related to black hamburgh) with Yorkshire origins that first came to Western Australia during the 1850s. By 1904, the Benedictine community also bred New Norcia horses that were much in demand around Western Australia. The buildings and colleges were surrounded by irrigated gardens, orchards, and vineyards. An observer, as noted in the Freeman’s Journal , 9th of January 1904, described the ‘rows upon rows of orange and lemon, with apple, peach, pear, fig and other trees, interspersed. Vegetables and flowers of every kind are grown in great profusion.’
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