Itinerary Details

Day 1

(MD, Motel) Departing Perth along the coast we are taken back to the life and times that Monsignor John Hawes lived and worked through the mid west. From 1915 to 1939 he served as a Catholic Priest, Architect and Builder. We explore his early life in England and how and why he ended up in Geraldton at the invitation of Bishop William Kelly. This afternoon we visit the John Hawes Centre and take a tour of the remarkable Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral.

Day 2

(FB, MD, Motel) The morning in Geraldton starts with optional Sunday Mass at Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral. We take a drive past Saint Lawrence’s Church at Bluff Point, the massive and rambling Nazareth House before the small and basic St Patrick’s (former church) and the Hermitage at St John of God Hospital. Later take a tour of the Chapel of San Spirito in the Utakarra Cemetery. In the afternoon we head north to the Saint Mary’s in Ara Coeli church in Northampton built in Gothic Style of rough hammer-dressed red sandstone. Through the wheat sheep country of the Chapman Valley to Nanson and the Our Lady of Fatima Church before Kojarena and the Saint James Chapel built on the land of James and Maggie O’Brien after years of fundraising and dreaming.

Day 3

(FB, PL, MD, Motel) Monsignor Hawes was appointed Parish Priest of Mullewa in 1916 and used it as his base for many years, we spend the day in Mullewa. The Our Lady of Mount Carmel with its Romanesque-type architecture is influenced by the old hillside churches of Southern Europe. Along side the church Monsignor built his presbytery. Now a museum to the man, priest and architect, the cottage houses furniture he designed and photographs, vestments and items used by Hawes. After a picnic lunch we visit Mass Rock, a bush altar built to celebrate mass with the Aboriginal people of Mullewa in the beauty of the gum trees. Finally a visit to the pioneer Cemetery finds another altar and gravestone designed and built by Hawes.

Day 4

(FB) Leaving Geraldton out to the Church of the Holy Cross in Morawa. Inspired by “The ancient 13th Century churches of Tuscany, in and around Sienna”. Alongside the church is the small and basic Priest Lodge, a great reminder of the life of the travelling remote priest. The last building on the tour is the Saint Josephs Church in Perenjori, a more modernist style of work which was heavily damaged by Cyclone Seroja in April 2021. On the way home we explore the rest of the life of John Hawes, his move to Cat Island in the Bahamas and later life.