Some more Canberra attractions

The early morning weather, combined with a soggy forecast for the rest of the day dissuaded me from the idea of a short walk on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, instead I tried again for the hop on hop off bus. Success.


First stop for me, the Canberra centre and the history of the development of Canberra. We all know the city design was that of Walter Burley Griffin, or was it. He actually credited his wife Marion with most of the concept and design, his was simply the draftmanship. Her name was not added to their entry to the competition for the city design as it was considered that to do so might reduce their chances. Sigh!

My second stop for today, the Supreme Court of Australia which I appreciated far more than the national gallery. 

I was able to visit 2 court rooms: the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal

The Constitutional Court
All 7 judges sit 

The court of appeal 
5 judges sit 

The star to represent Federation 
And the state coats of arms 

As well as an exhibition of the courts history and function, including some of the more significant Constitutional Court decisions. 


The Mabo case 

The question of the dismissal 

I am inordinately grateful to our excellent Supreme Court with its system of apolitical appointment of 7 judges.

The first appointees 

Full court regalia 

The exhibit of the 6 principles of the Australian Constitution I felt obligated to photograph for my dear friend Zangmo Wangdi who will appreciate that these are the pillowcases of this country. (For those who would like context for that comment, check out this blog post from Bhutan https://lynnemaher2015.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-pillowcases-of-our-country.html






There were some tasteful art installations within the building 



And of course relevant coats of arms



And just to prove I exposed myself briefly to the arts

Pollack's Blue Poles. I really don't get it 

Coffins I believe 

An installation coming out of a project
To keep traditional spear making alive 

An afternoon visit to the national museum. An interesting building with well spaced displays I could politely describe as eclectic mixes. The mixes apparently tell stories but that theme eluded me.

I liked the Bunya tree installation 

Jesse Luckman's home made bushwalking jacket, 1940

Personally I think it looks as if displays were put together by curators with ADHD who were using some mind bending substances.  I photographed a few isolated things that interested me.

Spirits 

A regulation dinosaur 
Muttaburrasaurus 

After the hop on hop off circuit finished I checked a couple of local attractions before hiding from the rain.


'Ethos' stands outside
the Legislative Assembly 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A wild and woolly start to my holiday

Image
At The Rip - the beanie was essential  The crossing provided everything promised (threatened).  It was rather a roller coaster of a ride (I recall a rollercoaster ride called Montezuma's Revenge, from decades ago.. ) and the surf was definitely up. The lifeboat sheds at Queenscliff From time to time during the night I'd sit up and look out my cabin window and watching the waves being very lumpy with white caps.  After a visit to Keiser in Geelong for my knee physio program, I proceeded to Queenscliff and wandered out to the point and admired the lifeboat shed and lots of white caps in a very stiff breeze. Queenscliff church with Funeral Poles I walked around Queenscliff as my itinerary said admire the historic buildings, which I did down the main Street, I didn't visit the art gallery because it's not open until 10:00. I did note that the historic buildings in Queenscliff include a number of churches, one of which had First Nations funeral poles on the lawn beside i...
Read more

Onwards to Sydney and time with Jonathon

Image
Celebrating Celebrating in style! I can allow a gentle start to this morning, which is especially good given it's Sunday and I enjoy some coffee machine coffee courtesy of my Airbnb in Kurrajong, sipped while walking in my host's Garden and it was a garden well worth walking in: beautiful, varied, well established. As I drive towards Sydney, I note the price of fuel has soared to as high as 207 cents per litre which is ridiculously high given that I saw it for 159 only about a week ago. Whether it's Sunday pricing, locality or what, I don't know.  Google took me via some interesting back roads but I do end up at Keiser in Pymble in time to do a physio session before they close. From there I head towards my Sydney Airbnb. Again, Google takes me through some weird  routes, presumably to avoid traffic congestion on the Pacific Highway. My hostess responds to my message querying check-in time by telling me I can check in anytime I like, which is most convenient. So I do and...
Read more

Orchid Hunting at Wilson's Promontory

Image
Small Spider Orchid - Caladenia Parva I am SO glad that I'm not camping. During the night, on and off, the rain was absolutely torrential. And I awoke to more of the same. Nor is it particularly warm and there is snow forecast down to 900 m. I retrieve my winter walking trousers from the car. Weird to think that a few days ago I was wondering if I could stay cool enough. It seems my original intent was to have diverted to all sorts of interesting spots yesterday on my way from Mallacoota but I didn't get round to that little bit of planning. Agnes Falls and Welshpool Long Jetty would have been good little diversions but I'm not going to backtrack to see them. And I don't think with the forecast weather that planning to see sunrise from Mount Nicoll is going to be particularly rewarding. I note there's a Foster Flora Reserve with some walks I might need to investigate. I just looked carefully at the Wilsons Prom maps, with little walks around Tidal River and Lily Pil...
Read more