New Years Day - Australian War Memorial and Old Parliament House (Snowy Mountains and Canberra Trip)

Wednesday 1 January 2020 – 281 163

Not surprisingly, all ACT New Years Day parkruns were cancelled due to the smoke – so no New Years Day Double for us.  The sun was bright orange and could be looked at due to the thickness of the smoke.  It was most definitely not suitable conditions to run in.

We visited the Australian War Memorial again today, to see the Aviation Hall, ANZAC Hall, Colonial Conflicts and the special exhibition on peacekeeping.  After approximately eleven hours, across four visits we feel we have seen what we wished to see at the Australian War Memorial.  It is a remarkable museum.  The smoke and dust in the air was incredible.  Staff at the War Memorial were wearing masks.  I could only just see the beginning of ANZAC Parade from the War Memorial entrance. https://www.awm.gov.au/

After lunch we visited Old Parliament House - Museum of Australian Democracy. https://www.moadoph.gov.au/# The “Greatest Hits Tour” was a collection of political cartoons from the year – quite interesting. https://www.moadoph.gov.au/exhibitions/behind-the-lines-2019/ We then toured the building; Prime Ministers suite, House of Representative, Senate, King’s Hall, press offices etcetera, all as they were in the late 1980’s.

We visited the Museum of Australian Democracy, including the Magna Carta Exhibition.  Hayden attempted to use a typewriter in “Discovering the Lost Art of Letter Writing”. https://www.moadoph.gov.au/exhibitions/yoursfaithfully/

For dinner we joined the families of the other children Hayden had been playing with in the caravan park over the last several days.  An unlikely group of kids that just worked really well together (14yo boy, 12yo girl, 11yo girl, 10yo boy and 9yo girl), they were all very fit active kids and they just loved playing in the pool or the playground and got along very well.  I have enjoyed the parents, it has been a great group.

Australian Institute of Sport, Australian War Memorial and the Royal Australian Mint (Snowy Mountains and Canberra Trip)

Tuesday 31 December 2019 – 281 106

First stop today was the A.I.S. – Australian Institute of Sport. 

https://ais.gov.au/visit 

There was some memorabilia on display and a shop, to see anything else you must go on a tour with one of the athletes.  Our tour guide was a young female track runner who had just finished year 12.  She took us around the various training facilities.  She explained that some sports people are fully funded by their national sporting body e.g. Basketball Australia; whereas some other sports the athlete pays to be at the A.I.S. e.g. volleyball.

Lunch was a picnic in Remembrance Park – a beautiful shady park of memorials.  We then spent another hour in the Australian War Memorial, looking at the sections on Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as peacekeeping missions. https://www.awm.gov.au/

Last stop for the day was the Royal Australian Mint. https://www.ramint.gov.au/ We took a tour, which was very informative and saw video footage of the factory in operation. We also looked at displays and saw versions of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Medals.  I learnt that the bronze medals were made from melted down 1c and 2c coins, so they had literally been touched by millions of Australians.

Then back to the van to relax.  After dinner the smell of the smoke suddenly changed and parents all simultaneously appeared to gather their children.  We had three bushfires break out with 5km of us, good to know out instincts still work.

National Capital Exhibition and Parliament House (Snowy Mountains and Canberra Trip)

Monday 30 December 2019 – 281 059

The National Capital Exhibition was today’s destination.  Unfortunately, they opened an hour later than their signage indicated. https://www.nca.gov.au/attractions-and-memorials/national-capital-exhibition This gave me an opportunity to look at Lake Burley Griffin from another angle and at the Captain Cook Memorial.  The water level in the lake is visibly low, reflecting the prolonged period without rain. 

https://visitcanberra.com.au/attractions/56b23b58d5f1565045d801cf/lake-burley-griffin

All that smoke!

Stop two was a quick visit to the Australian War Memorial, where we looked at the outdoor exhibits as well as information on the Cold War, Korea, Malaya and Borneo. https://www.awm.gov.au/

We then met up with a friend of Drew’s at Parliament House and her husband walked us around many of the non-public areas.  After lunch in Queen’s Terrace Café, we looked at the artwork adorning many of the public areas, including an enormous hand-woven tapestry.  We also looked at the Alfred Deakin display. 

https://www.aph.gov.au/Visit_Parliament  https://www.aph.gov.au/Visit_Parliament/Whats_On/Exhibition/Alfred_Deakin_exhibition

A guided tour at 3:30pm with “Kylie” took us to view both chambers, as well as explaining the symbolic layout of Parliament House.  I had not realised just how enormous it is – 300m by 300m!  Last of all we went onto the grassed area of the roof.  A strong wind had sprung up and the sky was the clearest we had seen it and the flag was definitely flapping.  Another full day.

Australian War Memorial (Snowy Mountains and Canberra Trip)

Saturday 28 December 2019 – 280 980

Up early for Queanbeyan parkrun, the second last letter in our parkrun alphabet – and it was cancelled due to smoke!  We are all very disappointed as the closest “Q” to home is a four hour drive each way. https://www.parkrun.com.au/queanbeyan/

The Australian War Memorial was today’s destination.

https://www.awm.gov.au/

We began with a self-guided walking tour of ANZAC Parade memorials prior to opening time. https://www.nca.gov.au/anzac 

On opening at 10am we had a brief look around the entrance area before joining a guided tour at 10:30am with “Clem” as our guide.  This was very informative and covered many different parts of Australia’s military history and its impact on Australia’s social history.

After a picnic lunch we returned and explored the displays on WW1, WW2 and Afghanistan as well as the Hall of Valour.  A few interesting things I learnt today:

·         17000 Australian served in Korea – I hadn’t realised there were that many

·         There was a tank much smaller than I expected – I think it was Italian

·         Rommel knew what the Allies were doing in Africa as there could “read” communications between Britain and the US

·         102800 people have died serving Australia militarily, 62000 of them in WW1

·         John Simpson, the man with the donkey, was in fact, John Simpson Kirkpatrick

·         100 Victoria Crosses have been awarded to Australian military personnel

We stayed until the end of the day for the Last Post Ceremony, as did a very large number of people.  https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/last-post-ceremony

A day at the war memorial is emotionally and mentally draining but very interesting.  We spent the whole day there and did not look at everything – there is simply so much so see, experience and learn.