Canberra - The Rest of our Trip

We saw so much more while down in Canberra for our four days.  

A feature beside Lake Burley Griffin is the National Carillon.  As we have our carillon in Bathurst, it is lovely to see this one. It was a gift from Britain and opened by the Queen in 1970.  Currently it is undergoing some works, so not playing.  This is the old clavier, that is on display at the visitor’s centre.

The autumn colours continued to delight.

While at the National Gallery, we saw some famous paintings.  These are the Ned Kelly series by Sidney Nolan.

Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock was purchased in 1973 and initially housed in the Opera House in Sydney.  It was a controversial purchase at the time and is now valued at 800 million dollars.  No, that is not a typo.

On the day after our National Gallery visit, we visited the National Museum.  

There is currently an exhibition on Ancient Egypt.  This exhibition is of the collection of a museum in The Netherlands.

Although the Egypt exhibition was wonderful, I was a tad more excited about another exhibit that had only just been added to the Museum’s collection.

Our generation grew up watching Mr Squiggle on television. The collection of Mr Squiggle items were only acquired in April this year, so there were only a couple of items on display.

“Mr Squiggle, the man from the moon” would arrive each episode in “Rocket”. His pencil nose would poke out the hole at the front.

I actually find it funny seeing Mr Squiggle in colour, as we watched him in black and white.

Our next visit was to the Australian War Memorial, which filled up the rest of the day.

On our final day we visited some markets and then went for a drive, as the weather was so much better.  

We went and saw the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, officially the “Canberra Deep Space Communicaiton Complex”.  You couldn’t go in, but it was interesting to see.

Next was Cotter Dam.  What a beautiful spot. 

There were several picnic and camping areas beside the river and once again gorgeous autumn trees.

Our final stop was Mount Stromlo Observatory.  

Sadly, in 2003 the majority of this facility was destroyed in bushfires.  You now just wander around what remains.  There has been some rebuilding, but on a smaller scale.

Some small pods have been  since built to cater for public visits.

The Director’s Residence, which was one of Canberra’s finest when built, was gutted by the fire.  

The outer shell has recently been restored, while the interior will remain a testament to what happened.  An interesting place to visit.

On our way home to Bathurst we had a wander around the town of Yass.

It has some lovely old buildings.

And that pretty much wraps up our recent trip to Canberra, one we very much enjoyed.