In our travels of the State of Western Australia we were told about 'The Crown of Thorns' (to come later) so hence the search began as the directions were rather sketchy. So after travelling a very long way, across the top of Australia and down the West Coast then inland we came across the Town of Mullewa which is rather small with a lot of Aboriginal people living there. We found the Information Centre which is a good place to start, there found a white man who knew the history of Mullewa so hence he informed us where to find 'The Crown of Thorns' plus he told us about the Priest who built the Catholic Church. Before we set off to find 'The Crown of Thorns' we decided to drive around the small town and came across 'Our Lady of Carmel Catholic Church'.
Father John Hawes had great difficulty in building this Church. I was told a lot of the stone was from the area, plus he mainly built it himself with help from a few Aboriginals and white people.
View from the street.
The Presbytery & Living Quarters.
One of the Entrance of the Church.
Looking towards The Alter.
I was amused to read 'Alarm Area', it speaks for itself in Mullewa.
A closer view of 2 above.
Interesting Confessional.
The Baptismal Font.
Near the main Alter.
Further reading on the Priest who built the Mullewa Church in Western Australia.
John Hawes was born at Richmond in England and studied
architecture before becoming an Anglican Minister. He worked as a missionary
but seems to have had a change of heart about which brand of religion to
follow and joined the Catholic Church.
He came to the Mid-West in 1915 and began designing and
building a series of churches through out the region. In 1930 he became the
official Diocesan Architect but in 1939 he left for Cat Island in the
Bahamas and never came back to W.A.
He spent 24 years in W.A. and is responsible for the
design and building of some 16 different buildings.
