20150809 WA Moora, New Norcia, Bindoon

20150809  The town of Moora came from the Aboriginal name 'Moora' which means blowfly and is situated in one of the most interesting wildflower areas of the state and is the largest town between Geraldton and Perth, well! all I can say is, all the other towns must be bloody small.

 The rolling hills on the way to Moora are a blaze with the vivid yellow flowers of canola and are just breath taken and apparently it smells like cabbage. Canola is grown for its seed which is crushed for the oil used in margarine, cooking oil, and a few more. The properties of the oil fits with the current view that human health is better served by increasing the intake of mono and poly unsaturated fats in place of saturated fats

The Drovers Inn was built in 1909 and stands on the intersection of the town.

The historical buildings are what gives this town it's charm.

The New Norcia Benedictine Community is the official title of the group of Roman Catholic monks who have owned and operated the small town since 1847 and is Australia's only monastic town, with the Monastery, where the monks live, work and pray.  The monks live according to the guidance and rhythms of The Rule of St Benedict, which has been followed by monks since the sixth century AD.  Monks who do so are referred to as 'Benedictines'. Unlike many priest and nuns, monks do not join an 'order' as such, but instead join an autonomous monastery where they promise to remain for the rest of their life, well! fuck that.

 

The old construction are what hit you as you enter the town of New Norcia.  The front building was the St Joseph's Orphanage, a school for aboriginal girls, you can imagine the first thought that came to my mind, dirty little monks.

 

 

 

 

 

St Gertrude's Collage

 

Opened in 1908, this grand gothic-style building was originally a girls boarding school

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The back of St Gertrude's Collage, I just found it appealing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Burials date from 1860s & include some 130 Benedictine Monks & sisters, pioneers of the Victoria Plains & aborigines who lived & worked at the mission.  The graves of the aborigines are marked by simple white crosses.





 

 

Rosendo Salvado

Born in the Spain he entered the Benedictine order at the age of 15 yrs.  Once he arrive in the Swan River Colony he became well known for his work with the aborigines & also as an explorer, pastoralist & musician. He was named New Norcia’s Abbot for life in 1867, he died in 1900 during a visit to Rome. 

He look a bit like Glen Powderham?

The weather has turned to crap and all I want is a hot shower so we stop at the tiny town of Bindoon where we scored a lovely hot shower and a yummy fresh pie from the local bakery.

 

Bindoon represents the epitome of a scheme gone wrong

 

I was more than surprised to learn that this tiny town has a sorted history when, after WW II thousands of British children were shipped to Australia only to be stripped of their identities, used as slave labour and abused.  Bindoon Boy’ town was a Christian facility run by Br. Kearney, known in the circles as “The Orphans’ Friend” but as a “Christian Bugger” monster by the boys who passed through the facility.  It was the first of the old “Homes” to come to public attention, in the late 1980’s.  The House of Commons in the U.K report describes events at Bindoon as “quite exceptional depravity, so that terms like sexual abuse’ are too weak to convey it.”

 

 From the middle of the 19^th century until as recently as 1970, 130,000 British children – some aged just three – were rounded up and shipped off to the Empire and ended up in places like Bindoon, as “Child Migrants”.  In 1998 a House of Common select committee described the migration scheme as “Britain’s shameful secret”.
 
 
 

Bindoon Boys Town: it sounded like an adventure camp to the pale faces youngsters who emerged blinking into the sunlight at Fremantle after a six month voyage and looking forward to their new life in the “land of milk and honey”, where food was plentiful and children rode to school on horses, so they had been told.
 
 
 
 
 

 
An inquire in 2001 heard stories of rape, abuse and cruelty, including children scrambling for breadcrumbs on the floor  and a boy being forced to shoot and skin a horse he considered his only friend.
 


 
 
 

“We were told we were orphans, that we had no one,” says Mick Snell, but this was not true, many were just illegitimate of underprivileged families.
 

  

Tales of joy amid tales of misery.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd comforts a victim after giving a national apology to the forgotten Australians and former child migrants.  Sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care.  Sorry for the tragedy – the absolute tragedy – of childhoods lost.
 
 
 



This is such a sad part of our history but never the less a story that need to be told, Empty Cradles” became the basic for the film, “Oranges and Sunshine” and “Orphans of the Empire by Allan Gill, a former religion writer.