Canberra, in the minds of many Aussie citizens, is a place to be avoided at all costs. Almost every single local we told about going to Canberra gave us a warning about the city and how lame it is supposed to be.
The capital gets a lot of unnecessary hate, maybe people in Melbourne and Sydney are pissed that neither of them could get it together to make a run for federal capital (all jokes!). In case you don’t know, Canberra is a planned city and thus a planned capital, when the states united the decision was made to have a capital in an individual city and state. History lesson complete.
Now I am kind of a geek when it comes to politics and whatnot, so visiting a federal capital sounded pretty cool to me, especially since it is the first one either of us had ever visited. Did I mention Jackie has family living there as well? We got the five star treatment from Uncle Jim and Aunt Peta while we were there so our experience might be slightly skewed! Thanks again for the hospitality, the comfy bed, cold drinks and great company made for an awesome time, top it off with some Kangaroo Steak and we are approaching cloud nine territory!
CANBERRA CITY CENTRE
Back to our Capital city adventure…Canberra is host to many sites similar to any large city. We started off our four day tour with a trip to the top of the Black Mountain communications tower to take in the panoramic views of the city below. After soaking in the views we were off to the National Museum which had some great exhibits and unique and modern architecture that could give most of the museums we have visited a run for their money,
Minutes away from the museum is the Canberra Art gallery which plays host to a tonne of exhibits that are also displayed in big Aussie cities like Melbourne and Sydney. The temporary display that was on while we were there was the Ballet Russe which was a contemporary ballet company in Paris that was assembled by a Russian entrepreneur in the early 1900′s. Jackie was stoked, initially, I wasn’t. After hearing the story and walking through the exhibit I was sucked into the details of what it would have been like to be sitting stage side in Paris pre WWI watching the performers jump around in these elaborate costumes, while sucking back a fine cognac. To make a long story short, the display was one in a million and the atmosphere and ambience of the exhibit truly fired you back a 100 years. Some of the permanent exhibits have some awesome pieces, the pop art section has some Warhol pieces and as you turn the corner from that exhibit you see a massive painting by the famous Jackson Pollock which is now worth 90 million dollars (bought for 3 million, talk about ROI).
Since parliament is only a few minutes away from the Art gallery we decided to check it out. Canberra has two parliament houses, the old and the new, with the new being host to the current political body and the old being a great relic from the past. After entering the House of Representatives that was used to help strengthen the Aussie federation you get a feeling that you are in a very important place which is immaculately preserved.
The New Australian house of Reps
The juxtaposition created by the old and new parliament is amazing. You can literally walk across a grassy park and enter new parliament where the Australian political powers do their deeds during their parliamentary sessions. Access to the site is easy and extremely open, you get to see the banquet halls where visited diplomats are wined and dined and can take in the houses of government freely, even if there is a parliament session underway. Unfortunately for us, parliament was prolonged by a week and we didn’t get to see any spicy political action go down.
TIDBINBILLA NATURE RESERVE
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve was devastated by a huge bush fire in 2003 which destroyed much of the natural vegetation in the park. The park had been seeing an unusual amount of rain so the vegetation was lush, green and vibrant which is a rarity in the Australian summer. After walking through the park it is hard to tell that the park was adversely affected by the fires, and it is really incredible that the area could recover so vastly and quickly.
Knowing we encountered koalas and cockatoos on our Great Ocean Roadtrip but the only kangaroo we saw was taking a permanent nap on the side of the highway. Jackie was jonesing for some kangaroo action. As we approached the information station Jackie asked “will we see some kangaroos?”
The lady behind the desk looked at us dumbfounded and said there were over 100,000 kangaroos in the park and we would definitely see some, along with other wildlife. After 2 minutes of driving down the road we encountered our first pod of roos that were bouncing around with what seemed like no purpose. Jackie thought they were cute, I thought they resembled animal version of a Jack in the box hopped up on 20 cans of Jolt Cola and 40 packs of pop rocks.
Some Roos trying to cop a quick snack
Onwards and upwards, we started our hike through the park and immediately got to see some emu’s drinking water out of a hidden watering hole. Apparently this is a rare sight, we were quite curious to see what else the park had to offer. After seeing some turtles, pelicans, lizards and roo’s we came across our most exciting discovery yet: a black tiger snake! I was HYPED Jackie was APPREHENSIVE to say the least, I love snakes but Jackie is scared of them like I am to heights. Either way, the 5 foot snake was slithering on the path in front of us and we are told by uncle Jim that they are one of the most poisonous snakes in Aus…needless to say we waited around for a bit to let the snake do its thing and not bite us.
All in all our Canberra experience was a good one, and although it is off the beaten path of east coast tourism, it is definitely worth a stop even if its just to check out the capital city. With its galleries, museums and political presence, the place definitely has a unique charm about that won’t come with the big cosmopolitan cities of Sydney and Melbourne, and in the end Canberra’s really not that bad!
Getting a little piece of home in Canberra!
To View the Pictures from our Canberra Capital Adventure, Click Here
