New Norcia (/ˈnɔːsiə/) is a town in Western Australia, 132 km (82 mi) north of Perth, near the Great Northern Highway.

A significant diversion of the Great Northern Highway completed in 2017, known as the New Norcia Bypass, diverted heavy traffic away from the buildings and town.

[2][full citation needed] The abbey was founded by two Spanish Benedictine monks, Giuseppe Serra and Rosendo Salvado on 1 March 1847.

After two years spent among the local Aboriginal people, Serra and Salvado came to the conclusion that they could be more easily converted by establishing a mission rather than following them on their journeys.

The New Norcia Mission was scheduled under the Industrial Schools Act 1874, meaning that the abbot had "complete control" over the children living there.

[13] In his 2021 autobiographical book God, the Devil and Me, Alf Taylor (1945–2023) recounts the horrific verbal and physical abuse meted out to Aboriginal boys living in the mission by the brothers and nuns during the 1950s and 1960s.

[15] Aboriginal girls and young women lived and attended school there, sometimes sent by their families, and sometimes placed there as government policy if they were children of single mothers.

Her health started to deteriorate in the last part of 1875 due to tuberculosis so she trained Sarah Ninak – another Aboriginal woman - in all of the required skills.

[21] In early 2021, Andrew Forrest's company, Tattarang, via its subsidiary Harvest Road, acquired the land that the government had sold to the monks in 1949, with over A$17 million changing hands for it this time.

[citation needed] The colleges were among those investigated by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for historical accusations.

The figures were contained in a report released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in February 2017.

[31][32] In 2016, a trial in the District Court of Western Australia was told about perverted behaviour by monks at St Benedict's College during the 1960s and 1970s.

Bishop Max Davis, who was acquitted by a jury, said Brother Dom would hit boys or push them up against brick walls.

The town has attracted interest and tourist visits for most of its existence and as a consequence a number of guide books and histories have been produced.

New Norcia is respected in Australian culinary circles for its quality bakery (built in 1886) offering bread, nutcake and biscotti.

[37][full citation needed] Also maintaining olive oil production and locally made wines, port and ale can be purchased at the community or from special outlets.

[38][full citation needed] Much of the New Norcia farm has been sold off to pay the costs of damages resulting from the sexual abuse of children who were residents in the boarding colleges by the Benedictine monks.

[42] Marc Fennell's 2023 three-part documentary The Mission for SBS Television revisited the investigation into the theft, and spoke to former students at the schools.

In the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity is a large German organ, built in 1922 by Albert Möser of Munich, with 34 speaking stops.