Lake Burley Griffin and National Carillon, Canberra
Our holiday in Canberra
September 2007
One of the more unusual structures in Canberra is the National Carillon. On our first day there we could clearly hear all the bells pealing out their tunes across the lake. This collection of bells which can play tunes was a gift from the British people to the city of Canberra in 1970. It was to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of Canberra as the nation’s capital.
Houses of Parliament, Canberra
Our holiday in Canberra
September 2007
One of the most prominent buildings in Canberra would have to be Parliament House – or should I say, Houses of Parliament. The old building is shown in the foreground of the photo above. The much bigger and newer building is on the hill behind, together with its gigantic flag pole.
We didn’t visit the historic old building nor the new one on this visit. We did drive in circles around the new Parliament House one day when we became temporarily misplaced. That’s easy to do in Canberra, what with the numerous roundabouts at most intersections and many roads being built on a circular plan.
It is pure coincidence that this photo and this article should appear today. All Australian eyes will be centred on Parliament House today because of the Federal Election being held across the nation. By tonight we may well have a new government ready to take over.
Update: Australia does have a new Prime Minister and a new government as from today.
National Library of Australia, Canberra
One of the buildings we could see from our picnic lunch spot on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin was the National Library of Australia. So far I have not had the chance to visit our nation’s most important library. In another life I was a librarian in schools, so I have a particular interest in libraries. This magnificent building is a prominent feature of this part of the capital city of Australia.
Next time we visit Canberra we must plan to take in some more of the important and historic buildings of the city.
The National Library of Australia is a public research and reference library. It has more than nine million items in its collection, including books, journals, newspapers, maps, music, manuscripts, pictures, oral history, ephemera and electronic resources, including websites. Many of these items are published in Australia or are about Australia, but that is not all.
The Library also has world-class Asian and Pacific collections and many other overseas publications and rare books. The Library aims to meet the information needs of all Australians and people from overseas who are researching Australian subjects.
Link:
Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra
Our holiday in Canberra
September 2007
On our first day during our short stay in Canberra this year we had lunch on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. This lake is a central feature in the middle of this beautiful city, the capital of Australia. We virtually had the park to ourselves, except for about three hundred lunch-time walkers, cyclists, in-line skaters and people walking their dogs at lunch time. The many well-maintained walking/cycling tracks along the shores of the artificial lake are a great facility and obviously much appreciated by the citizens of Canberra.
The sunny, cloud-free day with a gentle breeze made it a wonderful picnic lunch.
Related article:
Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra
Our holiday in Canberra
September 2007
On arriving in Canberra late in the afternoon – after sunset actually – we checked into the Crestview Caravan Park where I had booked a cabin for our stay in the nation’s capital. This caravan is actually in Queanbeyan just over the border in New South Wales. It is only a ten minute drive to Canberra from there.
The caravan park and the cabin were a disaster, and I am determined never to stay there again. The park was crowded with very little room to park vehicles. The cabin was far below standard for what we paid. The facilities were well below acceptable and this detracted from our stay. Before we left I wrote a two page list of all the things wrong with our accommodation. The owners probably just screwed it up and binned it.
Jerrabomberra Wetlands, Canberra
On our first morning we spent several hours birding at the Jerrabomberra Wetlands. I had heard a great deal about this great birding spot from the internet. The birding was rather slow during my visit. You get that.
See also Bush birds at the Jerrabomberra Wetlands on my Birding blog.
Purple Swamphen