Perth, Bunbury, Geraldton, Busselton, Subiaco, etc, WA

Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, p 121:

D'Breda, Valerius, Italian
Early Missioner in Geraldton W.A.
Hardships are very much a part of priests' lives in the North-West of W.A., even today. Sweltering heat, flies and insects, mud-bogs in winter, sand bogs ever, corrugated roads, and distances that remind of eternity. But one big compensation among many is the fast-moving car with road surfaces constantly on the improve. What must it have been like in the 1870s when Father Valerius was on his mount to get around to a scattered Flock, — no cars, no refrigeration, undefined tracks, in a word pioneering in the grimmest of settings?

The writer once asked Dr. James O'Collins, third occupant of the Geraldton See and now the retired Bishop of Ballarat, if he could fill in on the details of the D'Abreda life. He couldn't, but happily tangented on to another pioneer of the Geraldton area, Adolphe Lecaille. The details the writer held thereon were clear, but the Bishop had a closer contact to tell of; for he had brought home the Lecaille remains from Perth in the boot of his car, transplanting them in Geraldton — a recognition in keeping with the service Lecaille had given well before the days of the establishment of a bishopric. So further details of Father Valerius have eluded, save that two years after leaving W.A. (circa 1874) he was in China endeavouring to join the Vincentians. More likely he failed in the attempt. The last clue in following the trail of the life story: he was, alive and missioning in Munich in 1908.
(Footprints, Vol. 3, No. 6)
Information: The late Fr. Senan Moynahan, Archivist, Perth