Canberra & Parliament House

April 26 - Leaving Sydney, we drove south a couple of hours to Canberra, Australia's National Capital. Kees told us Canberra's name is thought to mean "meeting place", derived from the Aboriginal word Kamberra. It was selected as the national capital in 1908. Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin won an international competition to design the city layout and plan its buildings. Before entering the city, we stopped at Mount Ainslie for a birds-eye view.

The original Parliament House was opened in 1927, with the new facility built in 1988. Australia's government is a combination of Constitutional Monarchy and two houses of parliament. Their senate is based on the U.S. Senate. The House of Representatives follows the green color-scheme of the British House of Commons and is decorated to represent the color of eucalyptus leaves. The Senate is done in the reds of the House of Lords, but is in muted tones to represent the dunes of the outback.

We all (and I mean all 28 of us - think "circus clown car!") loaded into one elevator and rode to the roof of the building. From there, we could look down the Australian War Memorial to Mount Ainslie. Our guide at PH asked if we knew why the Australian National symbols are the kangaroo and emu. We guessed it was because they are native animals, but it turns out the correct answer is because neither animal can move backward. Australia uses the animals as their reminders to "always move forward".

We left Parliament House and raced to the Australian War Memorial to observe the last posting/closing of the day. The closing ceremony was a bugler playing the Last Post. The walls lining the War Memorial are covered with the names of all Australian soldiers lost in conflicts. Since the day before was ANZAC Day, walls were covered with poppies.

This evening we spent the night in guest lodging at the Australian National University. Several of us walked into town for dinner and on the way back to campus, Kees pointed out the Southern Cross constellation - something never seen in our part of the world.