Blogs from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, Oceania

Geo: -35.3284, 149.084The drive up to Canberra was different to say the least the change in countryside was quite marked and all of a sudden we were seeing snow warnings as we progressed although I didn't think they were anything to worry about as we'd just about reached our maximum climb the thing that will forever stick with me about this stretch of road was road kill. It started with a few roos and then occasionally a few wallabies as we progressed the sheer number was startling we stopped counting them in the end and then we started seeing dead Wombats as well ( we really wanted to see Wombats in the wild but this wasn't what we wanted) The really strange thing was that all the dead bodies were at the side of the road ... read more

Very early morning ride to the airport. I had wanted to take the train but it did not run early enough so I got a ride from the hostel manager for $45 AUD. Had to wake up at 4:30AM to pack up and take a shower. Car left promptly at 5AM and 45 minutes later I was at the airport and in line for my Virgin Airlines flight. I am usually good about my flight planning but here I made a mistake because I didn't realize my ticket did not include checked baggage. I had to pay an extra $70 for my bag. If you buy through Travelocity or Expedia than always check with the airline itself to confirm what it covers. Ok first flight took me to Sydney and I will say Virgin Airlines does ... read more

Although there is still loads to see in the Canberra city centre, we’ll keep that for a future visit. Today we went into the suburb of Nicholls, just up the road, to Gold Creek Village which is an area with lots of entertaining things for all ages. I really wanted to see the miniature buildings at Cockington Green Gardens and we both thought we’d check out the National Dinosaur Museum. I have loved model villages since I first saw Bekonscot, the oldest one in the world – now 85 years old, near London in the UK as a child so I couldn’t wait to relive my childhood here and see how it compared. Cockington Green is only a baby, built in 1979, and the first section was based on the village of Cockington in Torquay in ... read more

The Old Parliament House (see previous entry), an understated but impressive building, had served as the home of the Federal Government from 1927 to 1988, when the new Parliament was completed. By that time more than 3,000 people were packed into a building only meant for a few hundred to work in. I bet they were thrilled with their new premises – no more sitting on each others’ laps! Inside the Parliament we went through the two Chambers- Upper (Senate) and Lower (House of Representatives), which were very imposing but decorated with lighter red and green than I had realised. I had expected them to be like the Melbourne ones, following the strong British Parliament colours, but they were more subdued and had eucalyptus leaves throughout the carpet instead of oak leaves. Then we saw the ... read more

Thursday 6th February, 2014. Canberra, ACT, Australia After breakfast we caught a bus (we plumped for the all day ticket) to the National Library of Australia where they had an exhibition called Mapping Our World. We managed to get some tickets for entry in one hours time. We passed this hour by visiting the Library's Treasures Gallery. This gallery holds all kinds of treasures including early maps and atlases, books, manuscripts, paintings, drawings and photographs. Some of the more notable exhibits include Captain Cook's handwritten journal documenting the voyage of the Endeavour, Australia's earliest existing printed document which is a playbill avertising an evening's entertainment at Sydney's first theatre, The Gallipoli Letter which is a 28 page letter written by journalist Keith Murdoch which helped establish the notion of Gallipoi as both a disaster and... read more