A little touch of Spain in the Australian bush restores body, mind and soul, as Margaret Evans discovers.

When devout Catholics, orthodox Jews, the odd gay couple or two, assorted non-believers and others on a Buddhist path gather together to break bread and talk of God, something wonderful has to be going on. And when the food is fresh from a monastery garden and the bread so good it's the sourdough of choice in every trendy city cafe, this can only be one very special place- the monastic community of New Norcia, a scenic 90 minute drive north of Perth.

New Norcia is that rare thing - a place that has stayed true to the vision and principles of its founders, the Benedictine monastic order and, in particular, its extraordinarily farsighted first abbot, (later Bishop) Dom Rosendo Salvado. One hundred and sixty years after Salvado and his small group of Spanish followers staked out their community's boundaries among stately gums on the deep loamy banks of the Moore River, 132 km north of Perth, it's that very authenticity that still resonates so powerfully.

Dom Salvado came with the intention of working with the local Aboriginal people of the area known generally as the Victoria Plains. The community flourished under his compassionate and hardworking example and, at its peak in the 1870s, the monastery was home to 78 monks and the town itself numbered five to six thousand people. Now only eight monks remain and the oldest, Spanish-born Dom Paulino, is 96. Yet, while their numbers have dwindled and the totally self sufficient agricultural community of Salvado's day is long gone, New Norcia seems to have discovered a new identity with the promise of future prosperity.

With its Moorish-inspired deep red brick walls that seem to reflect back the intensity of summer heat, the town arises out of the West Australian bush like a shimmering mirage, surely a fantasy from some sunbaked far-off land. For many travellers in a hurry to get where they have to go along this Great Northern Highway it must seem just that - but for those who stop to savour what it has to offer, New Norcia is a richly textured experience.

My own impressions of this exotic "red and white" town had always been of the fleeting variety, until, browsing through that field of secret gems, NOVA's Classifieds, one day recently, something about a small entry caught my imagination. It promised peace, serenity, nice unaffected people, the beauty of the bush and, having savoured New Norcia's famous sourdough and its distinctive olive oil, the prospect of great food! With a suggested donation of just $60.00 per head to cover full board, we were hooked!

Accommodation options vary from the caravan and camping variety "behind the roadhouse" (given the number of interstate 4WDs with caravans in tow, the town is now firmly on the nomad route around Australia so maybe it's time they had something a bit grander) to, at the other end of the scale, the New Norcia Hotel. Legend has it that this impressive building was meant to entice Queen Isabella 11 of Spain to visit this most far flung of her monastic communities. She never did come, and maybe she was never going to, but the massive central staircase is certainly fit for a queen.

The advertisement, though, was for a room in the monastery guesthouse, hidden behind the whitewashed walls of the cloister - and given that New Norcia is Australia's only monastic town, this had to be the only way to go. While the room itself has something of the spartan monk's cell quality about it - no TV, no radio, and rather lumpish single beds a healthy distance apart - anything else in this setting would have been a letdown. With only enough rooms to cater for 16 to 20 people, the atmosphere is both peaceful and convivial with an enclosed courtyard garden to draw you out of your room to soak up some sun. It's one of those magical places where the only sound at dawn is birdsong, a welcome distraction from the chiming of the church bell on the quarter hour! Truth be said though, both my husband andI came to love the bell and found it comforting, like a faithful guardian watching over us. There's no need for a (non existent) clock either - you can always tell the time!

But it's the Benedictine tradition of hospitality shown towards all travellers, regardless of religious creed or social status, that really defines this weekend for us- and many thousands of other visitors each year. It shows in the food, the tradition of a full flask of wine for every table (a rather zesty little rose that proves very popular), the gentle smiling welcome of the remaining monks and their open invitation to join with them in their daily services, from Vespers to Mass. If anything, you feel you're letting them down if you don't take up the offer to sit in on just a little of their formal religious observance - and afterwards, we're very happy that we do.

Full board includes a three course meal at lunch, following the healthier tradition of a more leisurely age - always soup and a wide selection of vegetables fresh picked from the monastery garden. It's at 12.15 precisely, followed by our lighter evening meal at 7pm. (If in doubt, just listen for the telltale chime). While tardiness is frowned upon and too much dallying between courses not encouraged, our fellow guests seem to enjoy it as much as us. Perhaps it represents for us all a rare opportunity to reach beyond our normal social circles to share food prepared with love with others also seeking enrichment of the spirit. We all know we're staying in a Catholic monastery and, in fact, the Benedictine order is the oldest in Christianity (with some Anglican expression as well!) But religious intransigence just doesn't come into it - and that seems to have been the way St Benedict wanted it. That word currently gaining converts - "Interfaith" - seems to fit perfectly.

Yet there's no doubt that taking part in the monks' daily religious observance adds an extra layer to a New Norcia monastery stay. Vespers, that evening service presented here as psalms sung in English and Latin with all eight remaining monks taking their turn, has an added poignancy. Every evening, from 8pm through to 8am, they maintain the Benedictine tradition of the Great Silence with only that beguiling bell for "conversation". While this service and others held at regular intervals throughout the day now take place in the new chapel, an impressive wood panelled room complete with organ, New Norcia's monks learnt their stoicism on the hard jarrah seats of the old chapel. This imposing room is included in the twice daily guided tour (a must to get a real sense of the settlement's history) and we learn that the hardest and straightest seats at the front were reserved for the novices. After years of "back straight and feet on the floor", they could look forward to a gradual progression, backward, to the comfy seats in the back row. Dom Salvado, it seems, wasn't one for indulgences! A measure of the man was that he thought nothing of walking back to Perth on the odd occasion to hold a concert (he was also an accomplished musician) to raise funds for his cherished mission.

The tour also takes in several other remarkable buildings, 27 of which have been classified by the National Trust. Most prominent among them are the Church just outside the monastery cloister built in three stages from the 1850s to 1923 when its organ was shipped from Munich (true to form, the monks made their own bricks to extend the church roofline when it was discovered that the organ was too big to fit); St Ildephonsus College for boys (members of the Marist Brothers, a teaching order, were brought out from Spain for this role) and St Gertrude's College for girls whose education was entrusted to the Sacred Heart Sisters. The chapels with their wonderful painted ceilings, the handball courts built on a grand scale for the Marist Brothers to practise their traditional sport, the imposing vestibule of St Gertrude's with its two salons for music practice leading off it all hint at a grander age. At their peak in the 1970s, the two educational colleges catered for 240 boys and 110 girls - today soaring costs and, one suspects, isolation have made this function a thing of the past, but St Gertrude's has evolved into a popular venue for music camps.

The deep red brick building that first greets visitors on the road from Perth is the town's Museum and Art Gallery. Our visit was timed with the greatest serendipity just a week or so after the gallery reopened to the public with its full collection of valuable religious art, much of which had been ripped from frames and stolen in an audacious robbery 20 years ago. While the act traumatised the monks and plunged the small unworldly community into unwelcome spotlight, maybe two decades later there is a plus side. The paintings by Spanish and Italian masters have been painstakingly restored and are now housed and presented in a manner befitting their quality. It's uplifting to see how once darkened and insect stained canvases have been brought back to their original state, giving the community a new reason to rejoice. The episode is part of the folklore of New Norcia and there's particular relish when we're told the thieves were almost immediately arrested thanks to leaving their hire car in full view in the main street. In those quiet days, every visitor attracted attention.

There's so much on offer in New Norcia and the museum itself is a window into the struggle and enterprise that have characterised this colourful town. There's much to suggest the interaction of the monks with the local Aborigines was, very largely, compassionate and mutually respectful - in the early days the monks were almost totally dependent on Aboriginal support and knowledge of their land as they attempted to establish a settlement in the harshness of a Western Australian bush summer. But learn and work they did - and at its zenith, the community farmed about 1000 acres, (400 hectares) ran 11000 sheep, tendered an orchard and market garden that ran all the way from the monastery to the river bank, produced honey from a beehive brought all the way from Spain (sharing space in the ship's hold for four interesting months!), farmed pigs in a piggery that's remarkable for its sense of compassionate and effective husbandry 100 years later and produced virtually everything they needed in assorted workshops. There literally was a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker!

It seems fitting that the partnership between the Benedictine monks and local Aboriginals is being furthered cemented this year in the Aboriginal Mission Cottages Project. The work, being overseen by the Friends of New Norcia, acknowledges a collection of 20 cottages that stood mostly to the south side of the Church for over 100 years and were home to generations of families. The project with a target of $150,000, incorporates the restoration of the last remaining cottage on the site, a memorial and an interpretive centre. One senses New Norcia, a time capsule of a slower age where harmony with nature and others was essential for its very survival, still has much to teach us in the future.

Further information at www.newnorcia.wa.edu.au

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