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Published: February 16th 2009
Day 100
Just imagine, having a child that you loved and provided a safe and protective home for, then one day a total stranger came to your door and said that we are taking this child away from you.
Imagine you as a child been taken away and put in an orphanage, then been told that you were taken away because your parents didn’t love you, only to find out years later that this was not the truth.
How would you feel?
Today we have been away for 100 days, and we are in very cold Canberra, cold enough to need to have a fleece on, that is just ridiculous, we want the sunshine back!! We are only in Canberra for a couple of days so have had to cram as much in as we can.
We left camp just after 9.00 and headed towards Capital Hill, where you are directed to park your car in this huge underground car park. No security barriers, no police, just good signage, cars this way, buses that way. We climb out of the truck and make sure we have everything, Camera’s coats, false moustaches, well Caroline anyway.
Parliament House
Entrance Hall at Parliament HouseOnce inside this building you are directed to walk through the security check where your bag is x-rayed, it is a bit like going through airport security, empty pockets into a tray that is scanned with your bag and then you walk through metal detectors tthen straight into the main reception foyer of the Australian Houses of Parliament, where the right Honourable Mr Kevin Rudd does his thing.
Over 30 years ago a competition was held to design Australia’s new house of Parliament, I really don’t know what was wrong with the old one that is just down the road, but there you go! It was a green field site on the top of the Hill, that had been chosen, and 380 Architects from around the world submitted their entries for the design, then the winner was chosen.
The first hurdle for the newly appointed architects was the “Then” Government didn’t want it on top of the hill as it gave the impression that the government was above the people on top of the hill and the people were below them.
Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp the Architects incorporated the design in to the hill, and some of the
Stairs
The main foyer. building actually has lawn on the top of it, it is a very impressive building, loads of Marble, Brass and decoratively finished wood.
Me, having had the experience to work for an excellent Shop fitter in the UK, Powells, I have seen the difference in finishes in buildings, and believe me its all in the finish. If a building is built well but the finish is poor, then the whole thing is a disaster. Parliament House was Architecturally stunning.
It was brilliant just to walk around, unhindered, obviously there are some places you could not go, but generally you could just have the run of the place.
On the 13th February 2008 Kevin Rudd apologised to the Aboriginal people for the “Stolen Generation” it was the day when the Federal Parliament acted to deal with some of the nations unfinished business to right an historic wrong and to open a new chapter in our shared history.
The Prime Mister was referring to the decades up to the early 1970’s when the government policies and practices saw an estimated 50,000 Aboriginal children removed, stolen on the basis of their race. If you want to know more about
Parliament House
Chairs sited just off the main entrance hall it, you have to see the film “Rabbit Proof Fence”, it is available on DVD, if it doesn’t make you cry and furious, well there is no answer to that.
The “Sorry” exhibition was fantastic, some excellent photographs, and documents.
I have seemed to warm to Kevin Rudd and I don’t know why, possibly because I think he straight talker and a do-er, possibly its because I have become so frustrated with the UK and their ways and in my soul I am looking for change and hoping that Australia will become mine and Caroline’s new home.
Possibly because I saw Kevin Rudd last week on the TV, genuinely hug a guy that was distraught when the fires had claimed so much, he showed genuine empathy, and you could honestly feel it.
Would you want Gordon Brown with his big saggy face giving you a hug, not likely, if he did, he would probably have his hand in your pockets pinching your money!!
The Chamber, in the House of Representatives was good you could sit in the public gallery and see where Mr Rudd, and his team argue important points, whilst the opposition argue the
Aboriginal Art
Flying Ant Dreaming, more like Flying Ant on Acid other way, on things like: Why are Wagon wheels smaller now than when we were kids? And possibly why have elephants got big ears?
We took the lift up to the roof and got out at this giant lawn, it was a bit like something from Charlie and the Chocolate factory, as I had said before some of this building is built into a a hill so the lawn or grassed area is the top.
All in all anyone coming over to Australia must go to Canberra to see the Parliamentary building, it is brilliant, and well worth a visit,
We left there after about 3 hours wandering round, totally in awe of what we had just seen.
Driving back down Capital Hill we drove across the road to the area where most of the Embassy’s are. We first saw the British Embassy all tightly fenced in and secure, followed by some most amazing buildings that you could clearly guess which Embassy they were before reading the signs, such as Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and so on, the American Embassy as you might well guess was heavily fortified, completely overkill one would expect.
We cruised
Sorry
More Than a word around the roads for an hour or so looking totally suspicious, there were quite a few federal cops around, parked strategically around the Israeli Embassy, I am sure at some point during our expedition around here our number plate will have been checked. However as with the rest of Australia, tourism is big here so we have a map that shows exactly where all the Embassy’s are and I noticed one or two others doing the same as us.
From here we drove towards Tidbinbilla and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, the Southern Hemispheres largest Radio Telescope and it is interfaced with JPL (Jet Propulsion Labroatories) in Pasadena, which are part of NASA, and one in Madrid. They are all at about 120 degrees to each other, which forms a Triangle. This then sends remote signals to unmanned probes such as the Mars Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity). This allows them to do remote studies of the Mars landscape and sends pictures back to Earth.
At the exhibition was a genuine Mars Lander that was never used and was not quite fully equipped however it does make you appreciate how large they actually are and how fragile they
Polish
What a floor look yet are so robust. While Andy was viewing this, Ross Murray an ex NASA employee, explained how they got the signals to various parts of the universe where we have remote equipment such as the Mars Rovers.
Spirit and Opportunity had a limited life expectancy, however nearly five years on they still rove the Mars surface to this day, much to JPL’s amazement, aiding further studies.
There were allsorts of exhibits, a genuine engine from the Lunar Module (LEM), a piece of moon rock, a space suit and the unhydrated food that the astronauts used to complain about, until NASA developed better quality meals. The main exhibit of course being the 70 metre, 4000 ton dish (DSS 45).
On the way back to Canberra we could not resist a little bit of off road work in one of the Forests, you are allowed to drive through on the man made tracks, nothing heavy, they are just like fire tracks, it is great to see some proper landscape without heavy bitumen roads carved through them.
After tea we popped out to take some photos of Parliament House at night. We expected not to be able to
Magna Carta
This picture had to be taken without flash photography due to the damaging effects of flash. get anywhere near and most definitely not to be able to access the underground car park. However we were able to drive straight up the road and into the car park where we noticed many cars still, a few people were also wandering around up top.
It is blowing a real hooley, the wind is freezing cold. I have to say if Tasmania is this cold I am having second thoughts about going.
It was cold and dark so we retired early to the cosy confines of our camper trailer.
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