Perth to Geraldton

Perth to New Norcia

Sunday, April 3rd

After a leisurely start, we set our new Navman and then spent time debating whether Gloria was taking the easiest or quickest route after all! We well remembered Stu’s trip from Brisbane to Gladstone where he ended up opening farm gates etc as his guide led him astray!! Eventually, we ended up at our first destination, York, a well-preserved successful mill town about 100km east of Perth. The country side was parched, further evidence of the drought that has gripped this part of the state.

At York, we delighted in being able to buy fresh vegetables at the Mill Market then walked around the town, enjoying the atmosphere and the relaxed feeling (a WA town on Sunday is always relaxed!) Unfortunately ‘Yorkies’ was closed, so we could not enjoy a coffee and conversation with Jenny, as recommended by Annette, so we ate lunch by the shallow Avon River then headed off again.

The journey took us through Toodyay, where they also have many well-preserved old building of some grandeur and are encouraging the tourists to come on a day trip from Perth. Our final destination, New Norcia, was reached around 4pm so we paid $7 to camp on a strip of red dirt beside the Great Northern Highway, enjoyed an Abbey Ale at the hotel then, thanks to Lizzie’s recommendation, a glass of cabernet merlot made at the monastery. Delicious.

New Norcia and back to the coast

Monday, April 4^th

New Norcia is the only monastic town in Australia. It was established by Benedictine monks from Spain in the 1840s with the aim of evangelizing and educating Aboriginal people. It is an amazing collection of grand buildings of European design, with cool cloisters, shady gardens and a number of large carob trees in which thousands of bees were collecting nectar.

We saw the collection of religious art, read about the 1886 theft of over 20 of these works and then visited the museum with its collection of objects and memorabilia about the lives of the Aboriginal girls who were educated there over a 100 year period. The thought of Aboriginal girls being taught English by Spanish nuns astounds me!

We took a tour of the town, learned that the property is now 20,000 acres and had once been 400,000. There are only 8 monks residing there now but a staff of 70 keeps New Norcia’s business enterprises going. Wine, nutcake, bread, sheep and wheat provide some of the income but the new industry is school camps, particularly for Catholic school students.



Boys' College

With so many buildings to renovate and maintain and grants few and far between, the need for a strong income source is great. Tourism provides some of the money but not enough.




This is a highly recommended tour, as to explore without a guide would not give the character and history of the place, although the information about the lives and reality for Aboriginal children was still given a gentle perspective.




New Norcia Hotel



From New Norcia we headed across country to the coast at Lancelin then up the recently completed Indian Ocean Road, which put Gloria into a real tail spin and she could say nothing except “perform a u-turn when possible.” I already think that ‘two’s company, three’s a crowd!’

The coastal scenery was glorious and we couldn’t take our eyes off the pure white sand dunes as we approached the Pinnacles area.

 It was after 4pm when we visited the Pinnacles, an amazing landscape consisting of thousands of limestone pillars which have been exposed by fire and wind erosion. This was a truly spectacular sight.

We called in at the fishing town of Cervantes, where we had expected to stay the night, but the unusually warm summer and the cyclones that brought warm waters to the south meant that the beaches were full of smelly, rotting seaweed and this was not pleasant, so we broke our deadline and it was a grumpy twosome who finally reached Sandy Cape, having driven the last 6km on corrugated road looking straight into the sun. Never again! we declared once againJ The brilliant orange sunset over the Indian Ocean and a bay with 4 large cruising and cray fishing boats in the bay certainly helped ease the tension. With the ocean in front and pure white dunes behind us, we couldn’t help but relax and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Sandy Cape to Dongara

Tuesday, April  5^th

We estimated that by 9am the temperature was around 30 degrees, so an early start and finish were essential for today. I walked along the bay and then over the cape to the other bay, only a 30 min. walk but I was hot and thirsty when I returned. We left the sand and lime mining area behind and headed up the highway to the Grigson Lookout, from which we viewed the sand dunes and the coast as well as the inland plains. We learned that the dunes here move up to 20 metres in  a year, which gave us a true indication of the wind velocity here!

We turned into Greenhead, a pretty holiday village, and enjoyed the views, filled the water tanks then headed on to Lake Indoon, about 12km inland, as the camping there had been recommended. We discovered a dry lake, magnificent trees and banksias in flower, and more bush flies than ever before encountered. Lunch under the shelter was to be endured, not enjoyed, and there was no smiling for the camera as the flies quickly entered any open mouth. In another season, this would be a delightful spotJ

Dongara/Port Denison was set as our destination and when we arrived we discovered a pretty town and an interesting fishing port. The afternoon was spent exploring the estuary, swimming, driving to the various caravan parks and finally sitting in the shade reading and relaxing. I tried to contact Kerrie in Geraldton but Graeme took a call and sadly she and Tom have a son with terminal cancer so they are in Darwin with him and won’t be back in time for us to see them.