Embassies

This will be my last post from our recent holiday in Canberra - a slide show of some of the foreign embassies in the city.

ABC Wednesdays - N is for National

This is the National Carillon, situated on a small island on Lake Burley Griffin in the centre of Canberra. The 50 metre tall structure houses 55 bells; weighing as little as 7 kilograms up to a massive 6 tons and covering four and a half octaves.

The National Carillon was a gift from the British Government to the people of Australia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Capital. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the National Carillon on 26 April 1970.

The bells chime every quarter hour and regular recitals are given. On Sunday we heard part of a concert by a carillonist, Susan Antcliff.

Click here for a link to a virtual tour of the National Carillon.

Canberra is our National capital and if you look back on my posts on Sunday and Monday, you will see some more National buildings lit up at night.

We just arrived home from our holiday in Canberra; hence the reason for this post being up a bit later than usual. I did have my laptop and a 3G mobile wireless modem with me, so I was able to get posts up during the trip. Last night we were staying in a town where they only had a GSM network which was quite slow, so I decided to delay today's post until I got home.

To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions go to the ABC Wednesdays' site or to see direct links to their own sites go here.

ACT Bushfire Memorial

In 2003 a devastating bushfire caused widespread damage in the Australian Capital Territory. 

Four people lost their lives and five hundred houses were destroyed. A monument has been created at Stromlo Forest Park as a memorial. 

Very much a community project; the designers Tess Horwitz, Tony Steel and Martin Jolly incorporated 500 images from 80 people in the glass columns in this amphitheatre.

160 people provided inscriptions to be used on bricks in the curved wall at the entrance to the park.

Looking towards Mt Stromlo and the park one can see results of the devastation; five years on the area is slowing recovering with new growth.

Click here for a link to an information sheet about the memorial.

Canberra - more night shots

Old Parliament House

(New) Parliament House

Australian National War Memorial

Canberra at night

I love the challenge of taking night shots, so on Friday night we set out to see Canberra at night.

The High Court of Australia

National Museum of Australia

National Library of Australia

Inside Parliament House

Australia's federal government has two groups of elected members. 

Australia is divided into electoral districts of approximately equal numbers of people. A person elected by the majority of voters in that district becomes a member of the House of Representatives. It has 150 members.

The House of Representatives chamber

The second group of elected members belong to the Senate. There are 76 senators; 12 from each state and 2 each from the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.

The Senate chamber

A good overview about Australia's Parliament can be found here.

Parliament House

Australia has a Federal Government and each state has a State Government. The Federal Government is based in Canberra in a separate area of land called the ACT (Australian Capital Territory)

(New) Parliament House was opened in 1988. It was built as a replacement of an existing building (Old Parliament House). 

When you look from the roof of Parliament House you see Old Parliament House and behind it several kilometres in the distance across Lake Burley Griffin you can see the National War Memorial.

When looking from the War Memorial you see new Parliament House 'perched' above the old building. 

Lake Burley Griffith

Canberra was designed in 1912 by Burley Griffith, an American architect. An important feature of its design is a lake named after him.

The lake is used by a few small charter cruise vessels, but recreational power boats are prohibited. This photo shows yachts from the Canberra Yacht Club competing last Sunday.

The tree lined shore makes for very pleasant walking and cycling.

ABC Wednesdays - M for Murrumbidgee

The Murrumbidgee is one of the River Murray's tributaries. This photo was taken just out of Canberra, about a hundred kilometres from its source in the Australian Alps. The Murrumbidgee's  total length is about 1600 kilometres. Murrumbidgee is an aboriginal word meaning big water.

I am posting this post from Canberra, Australia's capital, where we are on vacation at present.

To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions go to the ABC Wednesdays' site or to see direct links to their own sites go here.

Road to the top

Canberra has a fantastic network of bike lanes and bike paths, but today our illustrious leader took a short cut up a bush track to a scenic lookout. Demanding enough at the best of times, it was made worse because it had rained the night before.

Space exploration

This  is Deep Space Station 43, a 70 metre radio telescope, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla about 45 km from the city. This antenna is one of a series of large antennas that enable NASA to communicate with and receive signals from distant space craft exploring our Solar System.

The complex also houses Australia's largest permanent collection of memorabilia and hardware used in the exploration of space; all very interesting.

Floriade 21

Each year Canberra comes alive with a vivid display of flowers. Over a million plants are featured in specially designed layouts along a theme; this year's theme was 'Films that shaped our nation' and the event, Floriade 21, ran from September 13 to October 12 (today).