A Mission Founded
The leaders of the Benedictine party were Dom Rosendo Salvado and Dom Joseph Serra, who had fled their native Spain in the wake of the 1835 anti-clerical revolution. Their arrival in Italy coincided with a monastic revival which renewed interest in establishing foreign missions, and the two friends volunteered for overseas service. Late in 1845 Salvado and Serra joined twenty-four other missionaries under the newly-consecrated Bishop of Perth, Dr John Brady, and set sail on the Elizabeth for Fremantle.

Dom Joseph Serra, who later became Bishop of Perth

Dom Rosendo Salvado, New Norcia's first Abbot

Bishop Brady had worked in Australia for some time, and was deeply concerned for the Aborigines. He deplored the ill-treatment of the country's original inhabitants at the hands of white settlers and their introduction to European vices and diseases. Only "the blessing of civilisation and religion" could ensure Aboriginal survival in the face of this massive onslaught, and Brady's aim was to set up missions throughout Australia. However, of the original three he established at New Norcia, Port Essington (in what is now the Northern Territory), and Albany, only this central mission survived. After a precarious start, the fortunes of the infant Swan River Colony were improving by the 1840s, mainly due to wool exports. The resulting demand for land was causing settlers to look beyond the Perth and Avon Districts. A Catholic magistrate, Captain James Scully, along with James Drummond, the first government botanist, explored and named the Victoria Plains in 1841. Scully met Bishop Brady upon his arrival in Perth five years later, and convinced him that the region, where Aborigines were numerous, was the ideal location for the central mission. Brady entrusted this mission to Salvado and Serra, who, accompanied by two other Benedictines and an Irish catechist, set out on foot from Perth for the Victoria Plains on February 18th, 1846. It took them three hours to reach Guildford, then only a small but hospitable township, from where the missionaries went on to spend the night at Samuel Moore's house on the Upper Swan. Samuel's brother was George Fletcher Moore, the explorer after whom the Moore River was named. For those interested in the establishment of Guildford and the development of the Swan River Colony, the Swan Valley Heritage Trail traces the latter part of Captain James Stirling's exploration up the Swan in 1827 (please see page 18 of this brochure). Scully had provided Salvado and Serra with a guide and a bullock cart to carry their belongings, and on March 1st, 1846 the missionaries made camp and said mass at Noondagoonda Pool on the Moore River, some 8 km north of present day New Norcia. By a coincidence it was the feast day of St. Rosendo, Salvado's patron, and it is this date which today's monks celebrate as their foundation day. March 1st also marks the opening of the New Norcia Heritage Trail in1986.

Salvado and Serra with Aborigines in their first year in the Victoria Plains

The first year saw great hardship, tragedy (the Irish catechist, John Gorman, was accidentally shot), and disappointment. However, good relations were established with the region's Aborigines, and Salvado began learning their language and customs. Then in December 1846 the monks were forced to abandon their second camp when it was discovered they were trespassing on the leases of the Macphersons, Scully's shepherds, and they moved south to New Norcia's present location.

On the anniversary of their arrival in the bush, Salvado and Serra, now alone, laid the foundation stone for a permanent mission. Assisted by a group of French and Irish tradesmen from Perth, the walls of this first chapel and dwelling were completed in April 1847, and Salvado wrote that "out of reverence for St. Benedict we named the place New Norcia, in memory of the spot where our founder was born".