Day in Canberra

We finally got out to do some more sightseeing today.  With Mal working full time - now as a general maintenance/handy person at a local motel - we aren't getting much opportunity to get out and see around the place.  I have extended my contract at the hospital up till the end of March and then we will have two weeks to do some serious sightseeing before we head over to NZ and onward to Europe for our long awaited holiday!

Anyway, today Mal took the day off so we could head in to Canberra for a looksee.  We dropped Chip off at a daycare place in there and went exploring.  Its a very well laid out city and although it has a population of around 350,000 we wondered where they all were today as the roads were very quiet and even the main city centre didn't seem overly busy.

We were surprised that the city centre is quite seperate from the parliament and government buildings - guess we are used to the Beehive and all other Government departments in Wellington being the actual city centre.  The Government buildings are very impressive though - have a look at the photos below




Infront of the new Parliament Building




The coat of arms above the building



 

 


     




Looking toward the city from the top of the Building

This is the old Parliament Building

  





The Aboriginal Tent Embassy which has been in place in one form or another since 1972 - infront of old Parliament House



We went in to the Parliament Building and had a look.  Its a lovely building with lots of marble etc - very impressive.  We then went and sat in the House of Representatives and watched Parliament sitting -they were voting on a controversial change to medical insurance.  We got to see Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Peter Garrett etc  - all in the flesh and in action - very exciting!  Although moving from one side of the house to the other and 'chatting' inbetween sure seems to be an easier way to make a mega buck than what we are doing day to day!

We also went and looked at the Carillon - its a musical instrument of bells housed in three columns not far from the Government Buildings.  Someone was playing them when we were there....below is a picture of the Carillon and a short video (albeit sideways) of it playing

We then drove in to the centre of the city and found the large mall - ahhh civilisation again.  We had lovely sushi for lunch washed down with a very sweet cake each.

We then headed to the National Portrait Gallery for a look which was quite interesting - have to say that women from the 1800s were very manly. 

And that was our day!  There is so much to see in Canberra that we will spend a couple of days there when we leave Goulburn.  The War Museum is supposed to be fantastic and a full days viewing, as well Questacon the science centre is supposed to be awesome.