Canberra - The Capital

National Carillion.
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After dragging our bags through the heat to Sydney Central Station we got on the air conditioned train to Canberra (Jon and I are loving air con in Australia!). The journey was about 4 hours long going through the bush and the odd town before arriving in Canberra about 4.30pm. The station was very quiet, even quieter than little Letchworth station and the area around it didn't really have very much. We found our hostel easily and after checking in decided to find some dinner. After an hours walk to the centre (it took longer than we thought!) we found that Canberra didn't have a huge centre in terms of shops, food courts and restaurants and what it did have seemed to shut about 5.30pm. We did eventually find some food and then headed back to the hostel for the evening.

View down Anzac Parade from the War Memorial to Parliament House.
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The next day we set off to the National Museum of Australia which looked at "land, nation and people" of Australia, it was pretty interesting looking at how the country started when settlers arrived, the problems its faced and the national identity of Australia as it is still a relatively young country. Then it also looked at the ancient Aboriginal roots of the country.

After the museum we headed for a walk around the town and lake to the National Carillion, a huge musical instrument which was give to Canberra in 1970 by the British and received by the Queen on behalf of the Australians.

Captain Cook Memorial Fountain & the National Capitol Exhibition building.
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The next day we went to the Royal Australian Mint looking at the history of the coins used in Australia as when the colony was first started all sorts of coins including Spanish and Asian were used as currency. To try and make a fair system one governer tried to introduce a currency by taking spanish coins, cutting a hole in them and using the "holey dollar" (the Polo shaped bit) and the "dump" (the bit out the middle) as currency before an Australian currency was introduced.

We then went to the Australian war Memorial and looked around that which looked at the Australians role in the 1st and 2nd World wars. We were at the Memorial when it was closing and they performed a closing ceremony where a bugle player played The Last Post signifying that the soldiers day had come to an end and the dead could rest in peace.

Today is our final day and we are taking it easy as we have done a lot of walking the past few days. We are currently at the National Library of Australia using the internet as its free! This afternoon we will probably go to the National Capital Exhibition which isn't too far away.

We are both looking forward to moving on tomorrow. We've enjoyed learning about Australian History but we both feel a bit "museumed out". There isn't a lot else to do in Canberra, compared to Sydney its very quiet with little happening however we still feel it was worth a visit. Tomorrow we are going to Wagga Wagga for a night before moving on to Melbourne.

H.