Francisco Marsá was one of thirty-nine Benedictine priests and brothers who were recruited by Bishops Rosendo Salvado and José Maria Serra to come to Western Australia in 1849 aboard the Spanish warship Ferrolana to build the monastery at New Norcia.  Marsá experienced first-hand the physical hardships involved in colonising the Victoria Plains and he was a witness to the complicated ecclesiastical turmoil which rocked the early colony. In his Diary, Marsá covers in detail the outward trip, the arrival in Fremantle, the difficult journey to the New Norcia site and the work and the hardships involved in building the monastery.  Tom Stephens' very comprehensive foreword brilliantly sets the scene and provides the background context to that tumultuous period in Western Australian history.

Translated by Marta Perez-Rey