Canberra – Australia’s Capital

With the weather not on our side, it made perfect sense to head to drive a couple of hour’s northwest, to Canberra on Saturday morning.

Canberra has to be one of the oddest capital cities in the world. On a Saturday, when most cities are heaving with people, Canberra is dead. It’s weird, especially considering there is supposed to be over 300,000 residents. I need to read up on all the details, but as far as I’m aware, Canberra was purposely built about a century ago, to house the parliament buildings, and other capital things, like a primary museum, and art gallery, etc.

The whole city was basically mapped out before it was built. Therefore, pretty much everything has its place; nothing is a stuck-on after thought. This is good when it comes to navigating your way around, however, because of this it has absolutely no character. In Melanie’s words, “it’s sterile”.

The Parliament Buildings

parliament_buildings

The first place of interest we came across was the Parliament buildings. Being a Saturday, it was full of tourists, and we were permitted to go around most of the building.

I found it interesting, especially reading up on how the Parliament was formed initially, the difference between the Senate, and the House of Representatives, what it means to be a federation, the first PM, seeing paintings of past PM’s, and actually being in the rooms where all the action takes place.

The building itself, even though it’s been up quite a while, still seems very modern, with clean, sharp lines, open spaces, and a lot of deliberate symmetry.

The War Memorial

war_memorial

After the Parliament buildings, and a bite to eat, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the award winning War Memorial, which sits opposite the Parliament buildings, separated by Anzac Parade.

A few folks had advised us, that the War Memorial in Canberra was well worth a visit to the city in and of itself. After being there, I’d have to agree. I’m not an avid historian, and my lack of historical knowledge frustrates me at times. Thus, I enjoy the opportunity to learn more, especially in decent museums.

That’s what you find at the Canberra War Memorial: a really decent memorial, and an excellent museum, covering aspects of most of the wars Australia has played some part in, in its short history. Of course, the World Wars take up most of the museum, and it was good to learn about how they affected Australian’s. The curriculum in the U.K. tends to focus primarily on what may be deemed the ‘major’ allied nations, U.K. France, Russia, and America. It’s a bit short-sighted, especially as Australia lost more men in WWI (relative to population) than any other nation, but I suppose every country is the same, and there’s only so much you have time to learn at school.

To be honest, it has crossed my mind that Australia is yet to fully recover from the losses incurred during the war. Apparently, there is a ‘man drought’ in Australia, and maybe the reason is down to the loss of many men at war. Any thoughts?

gallipoli_boat

There are also a lot of life-size models of airplanes, weapons, ammo, and other equipment used in the wars. Above is a photo of an actual boat which landed on the shores of Turkey on the 25th of April, 1915. The day which is now annually remembered as Anzac Day.

war_memorial_plane

Closing thoughts…

If you’re interested in history (you ought to be), and you’re in Australia, I’d recommend a trip to the War Memorial in Canberra. It’s a real credit to Australia to have such a great museum at the Memorial. Other nations, if they haven’t got something similar in their capitals, ought to follow suit.

After a Hungry Jacks, we headed south towards the Snowy Mountains, and stopped for kip in a tiny little place on the other side of Cooma, called Nimmitabel. It’s a fairly isolated little town (more like a hamlet to be honest), which sits over 1000 metres above sea level, but it offered a nice little rest area for us to stay at.

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Added Commentary

  • #1 of 8
    By Jermayn Parker
    on 05.02.08

    ACT was created as Melbourne and Sydney were both ‘fighting’ to be Australia’s capital city (ACC) so they decided to create the ACC in the middle of the two!

    Pretty crazy hey??

  • Author #2 of 8
    By Armen
    on 06.02.08

    Jermayn - Yeah buddy, I’m aware of that. I think the only condition was that it had to be at least 100 miles from Sydney.

    It’s a little bit crazy, I suppose. Most of the capital cities of the world are beside water, located at a natural harbour, or beside a major river.

  • #3 of 8
    By Jermayn
    on 06.02.08

    I personally have not been there but apparently its a pretty crazy place especially when you live near the borders; Like different road rules etc

    Is it fairly spread out??

  • #4 of 8
    By Jermayn
    on 06.02.08

    btw its good to see you going over to the light side and having Hungry Jacks!!

  • #5 of 8
    By Davey Boyd
    on 07.02.08

    Good on ya’s for stopping into Canberra…I’m still yet to visit it.

    By the way, do you want your hard drive back? Send me an email with your address.

  • Author #6 of 8
    By Armen
    on 08.02.08

    Jermayn - I didn’t drive around it much to be honest buddy.

    It’s just a shame there isn’t a HJ in Port Lincoln :)

    Boydy - It’s worth the trip my friend.

  • #7 of 8
    By Joanna
    on 08.02.08

    Armen, aint been on this in a while! When is it u’s come home to the good old Northern Ireland? How you’s been?

  • Author #8 of 8
    By Armen
    on 11.02.08

    Joanna - Good to ’see’ you here again. No set date as yet. We’ve been keeping extremely well, and we’re still rejoicing!

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