We left Koojan and headed straight to New Norcia (with some trepidation among the group – see New Norcia Benedictine community among worst child sex abuse perpetrators ). My tolerance for their misdeeds evaporated when I saw the pamphlets in the Visitor Centre extolling safeguarding children within the church, yet not a mention of their history. We did a self guided tour around the only monastic town in Australia, viewing the extensive, expensive buildings of the community. The romantic notions of the monastic life disappear when faced with the reality of stolen children and the approximately 350 children who died there over the years and the fact that there approximately 250 unmarked/missing graves of those children.
We left the town with a distinct feeling of sadness and made our way toward Wongan Hills where we had lunch and refuelled. The town boasts an agricultural research property and appears to be a relatively well off community. It’s amazing the vastness of the wheatbelt in this area. For the last few days we have been driving through rolling fields of Canola with their vibrant yellow flowers, fields of Lucerne and fields of wheat on either side of the road. Today we were driving through undulating country that had cereal crops all the way to the horizon and when we reached that horizon it continued to the next. They have extensive large scale infrastructure to cope with all the grain – vast silos and a network of railway lines.
We decided to head back to the bush for tonight’s camp, it will probably be the last camp on the edge of the wheatbelt before we start thinking about heading east again. The weather had been balmy although this morning the temperature had dropped to 2 degrees but that meant we’ve had glorious sunshine all day. Tonight looks like it may be cold again so we will enjoy another night around the campfire while admiring the stars at Newcarlbeon Rocks Picnic Area.
