Canberra is the Washington D.C of Australia. It’s not a huge city like you might expect though, only about 350,000 or so residents. The other thing that sets it apart from other Australian towns is it was actually planned. Here’s a little information I found on Wikipedia.
The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nation's capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely planned city outside of any state, similar to the American Federal District of Columbia. Following an international contest for the city's design, a blueprint by the Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected and construction commenced in 1913.
This picture is taken on the steps of the War Memorial, way in the back you see a building with a point, this is the Parliament Building.
Behind Matt and the boys in the above picture on both sides of the road are memorials to the different countries who have fought in wars with Australia.
This is the American/Australian War Memorial. Its hard to see but it’s an eagle on top.
I thought this was a touching statue. It depicts a soldier named Simpson who enlisted in World War 1. He and his donkey quickly became famous as he bravely went up and down the battlefield bringing wounded soldiers to get medical help. Sadly, he was fatally shot after serving only 3 weeks. According to the plaque that accompanies the statue, his kindness has come to embody the Australia spirit of self-sacrifice in war.
I’m not sure what the real name of this piece of equipment is called. I would call it the barrel of a gun off of a ship. It’s huge!
This memorial commemorates the service and sacrifice of Australian merchant seamen who manned ships in all parts of the world during the First and Second World Wars. The support these men provided was vital to the success of the war effort. Merchant ships carried vital supplies to troops but were vulnerable to enemy attack because they were generally slow, poorly armed and often loaded with dangerous cargo.
This is the Australian Parliament Building, where most of the government business takes place. Since we’ve been here there has been on going battle between the Prime Minister and the head of the Labor Party. It’s been quite petty, each complaining about comments the other has said, back and forth. It’s been interesting, and now we get to see where it has taken place.
Lots of capitol police on duty. It’s not a big place. I couldn’t help but wonder if things have happened to warrant needing so many officers.
Some of the fancy chairs inside the parliament building.
This is where the Senate meets.
This is where the House of Representatives meet. This is the room you see on TV all the time.
This is the mace that is always present when the parliament is in session. It’s supposed to represent the authority given to this branch of government.
This picture is taken on the roof of the new parliament building with the old parliament building in the background.
It’s pretty cool up there. There’s a huge lawn. The roof slopes all the way down to the sidewalks that lead you into the main entrance. It’s a neat design but doesn’t seem too safe. I’m sure they don’t have people trying to break in or terrorist threats like the States has had to deal with.
We’ve tried several times to get a good picture of the Australian flag. Still not a lot of luck.
This logo seems to represent the Australian government. It was found throughout the building.
After spending the day in Canberra we left the next day to drive through the Snowy Mountains. I’ve always wanted to see these since watching Man From Snowy River – one of my favorite movies.
Just like the rest of Australia, these mountains changed several times as we drove through them. They have forest, large meadows, bare land, farming on and on.
This was a pit stop along the way. Not sure what possessed Matt and Nick to get up on these posts. I thought it was quite the feat for Matt to get up there so I wanted to record it on film.
Sadly, we saw several dead wombats along the road; which is interesting given they are nocturnal and the roads going through the mountains are amazingly windy. I can’t imagine driving through them at night.
These cabins are spread throughout the mountains. Apparently, they get a lot of hikers through the area who occasionally have emergencies so these cabins are provided for such an instance.
More pictures showing the landscape changes.
We saw these signs along the way but unfortunately didn’t see any wild horses. That would have been cool!
Tomorrow it’s back to Sydney to get ready to fly to New Zealand. Australia has been absolutely amazing. We are fortunate to have been able to see so much of it. I will truly miss it.
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