July 2011 - Travel Stripe

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Canberra is not just the seat of Australia’s Federal Government and the repository for its national treasures, it’s also the source of the stuff that makes the world (here in Australia anyway) go round!

Titan the robot at work

The Royal Australian Mint, in the quiet Canberra suburb of Deakin, has been turning out Aussie dollars and cents, along with medals, medallions, tokens and seals since 1965.

I must confess, I expected the Mint to be rather tedious, with case after glass case of coin collections, endless conveyor belts charged with little pieces of metal and lengthy, technical explanations of the minting process. But, although it does have coin collections, conveyor belts and lectures, the Royal Mint is a truly amazing place.

It tells the history of Australia’s currency in a lively and interesting way; a DVD in the theatrette; displays of coins both ordinary and rare, including the famous 1930 penny, storyboards with fascinating little anecdotes of fraud and forgery and equally fascinating examples of counterfeit money. From elevated walkways with glass walls, you can watch the whole production process, from the engraving room to the final workshop where a tireless robot, called Titan, tips all the finished coins into bins ready for distribution.

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The National Museum of Australia, Canberra

July 24th 2011 03:21

The big, bold, bright National Museum of Australia sits on the edge of the lake, breaking the balance of Walter Burley Griffin’s art deco city, the decorous white of the New Parliament building and muted green of the landscape, with its unruly lines. From a distance it’s an attention-grabbing architectural interloper. Up close, from outside, it’s overwhelming. Inside it’s magical.

The Garden of Australian Dreams

At the National Museum of Australia you can dip into the past and find fascinating (and minute) details like the origin of the “furphy”. You dance through the present (literally) following the moves of young,urban aboriginals. You can design your dream space-craft, don three-d glasses and watch it negotiate the 22nd century freeways in K Space’s theatrette.

The Garden of Australian Dreams

But the best and most beautiful space at the National Museum of Australia is the Garden Of Australian Dreams. The gallery brochure describes it as a “rich landscape of symbols and meanings drawn from Australian life”. A giant map spreads across the surface of the garden and under the Museum building, bringing together a conventional land map as well maps of aboriginal boundaries, vegetation, geology, roads and electorates. The broad yellow line which intersects the area represents the line devised by the Treaty of Tordesillas, in 1494, to divide the globe into Portuguese and Spanish territories. Red and white poles represent the way that the early surveyors read the Australian landscape. A walk-in camera obsura helps visitors to interpret the garden. The bush is represented by a stand of gums. The rudimentary white “Dream House” represents the built environment of Australia while the gnome perched on an outside ledge is the “Antipodean” that Europeans of the Middle Ages imagined lived in the mythical land down under.

Always available to help you and answer any questions on the National Museum of Australia, is a large, well informed, endlessly gracious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual retinue of guides.

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New Parliament House, Canberra

July 16th 2011 05:45

Undoubtedly, the centre point of Canberra is the new Parliament House. All roads, paths, parks and even the lake seem to lead to it, point to it, highlight it or underscore it. There is truly, no missing it. It’s a striking building, by anyone’s standards – a sprawling white stone mass, semi-submerged in a rolling green lawn with great, gleaming metal flagpole at its apex. Despite its awe-inspiring aspect or perhaps because of it, I didn’t snap a single shot of the exterior. It probably doesn’t matter too much. Australians will be able to conjure up its image instantly from its daily TV appearances as a backdrop to the latest political pearls, while foreigners have a billion and one google pics at their fingertips.

The House Of Representatives, New POarliament House

Parliament was not in session at the time of our tour, so the place was ours to explore and enjoy. Our wonderful Education Officer/ Guide made certain that we didn’t miss anything and that we felt truly at home there, stressing that the New Parliament Building and indeed, the whole of Canberra, belongs to all Australians.

We began our inspection of our new Parliament House in the Great Hall, where we stood in silent admiration of the beautiful and enormous tapestry that fills the far wall. Then followed a long, long walk through narrow corridors running north, south, east and west, past closed doors and past portraits of familiar political faces of today and yesterday. Occasional banks of windows gave glimpses of quiet green courtyards below. We crammed into a lift and burst out onto the roof under the flagpole. It rose above us like a giant tripod, its pointed end lost in wisps of cloud. From here the roof-top lawn seemed made for roly-poly! But better games awaited us!

Downstairs my 30 twelve-year-old travelling companions dressed up and took over the House of Representatives. "Should ads be shown during kids TV programmes?” they debated. They played the game really well. They followed the protocols of parliament and read their scripted lines with conviction. They put an end to advertising during kids TV shows. But, in truth, they were far too polite, well-behaved and downright decent to be convincing politicians!

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The Australian War Memorial Canberra

July 13th 2011 05:44

The Australian War Memorial is a splendid stone edifice. It stands on the upper slope of the hill at the outer edge of the “civilisation” or town side of Canberra, looking down a broad avenue, lined with monuments, across the lake to the new Parliament building. There is a suggestion of the Champs de Mars in the avenue and a hint of Les Invalides in the memorial itself, but it has a different and uniquely Australian translation.

Weary Dunlop ouside the Australian War Memorial

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The National Capital Exhibition - a brilliant introduction to Canberra

July 12th 2011 10:33

Stop Two on Day One of our three day tour of Canberra is at Regatta Point, on the high side of Lake Burley Griffin. Behind it is the rolling green slope of Commonwealth Park, where a pristine marquee and a white semi-circle of chairs stand in wait for some great ceremony of state.

The original people's camp in Canberra

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London! Paris! Rome! Athens! ... Canberra?

July 9th 2011 11:37

London, Paris, Rome, Athens ... Canberra? It doesn’t quite fit with that line up does it? Yet, it has more in common with these cities than meets the eye – quite apart from the obvious fact that they are all, of course, capitals of their countries.