"CANBERRA - Our Nations Capital " a Canberra Travel Page by majicsilverrose

I had a wonderful time exploring Canberra, so please dont get me wrong and think I am slighting it in anyway with any of my comments, I do try to be as honest and straightforward as I can.

Canberra is quite a beautiful place. It is a fairly recently created capital, laid out along geometric lines, that are said to be mystic and 'cultish', (who knows early Raelian lines maybe ?) by an American Architect from Chicago called Walter Burley-Griffiin and his 'assistant' Marion Mahony, who became his wife while in Australlia to placate the outraged morals of the time. Marion Mahony who was a fantastic female Architect a leader in the field, she worked for Frank Loyd Wright in the US at a time when women did not work in this profession. She is a facinating character and worth googling.

Like a lot of women in history appended to a more reknowned male her story has been until recently largely forgotten and over looked, but in fact it was she who is said to have been responsible for the Walter Burley-Griffin entry being successful in the competition to provide Australia with a new capital city. Her architectual paintings/plans as submitted to the competition are very fine and considered outstanding art in themselves. many of these buildings were were never errected due to infighting, politics, escalating costs and changing taste over the extended time of the construction of Canberra.

The new capital city of Canberra was created to sort out the huge argument between Melbourne and Sydney as to which city was the most important and which should be the designated Capital of the newly federated Nation of Australia. We had previously been a collection of territorys, ex colonys and states. Canberra was half way between both Citys in what was previously dairy farming land, it still is surrounded by farms but is slowly spreading and pushing farming viability further and further away. Although federation took place at the begining of 1900s Canberra did not get officially opened until over 40 years later, due to war and the depression etc.

The argument between Sydney and Melbourne was not settled by the Creation of Canberra, and Sydney remains the better city (lol). I have to say that as I live in Sydney; just kidding Melbourne is a very nice place, if a little cold.

The geometric nature of the layout of Canberra makes it a city that seems devoid of people. There are beautiful buildings, a magnificent lake with fountains, a great set of carrillion bells tolling mysticly over the lake, huge wide boulevardes with trees and nice homes, but no people out and about, I would have been lucky to see 25 people on a sunny sunday pm round the lake. It may have been because march is fairly cool end of summer type month.

There is an excellent bus service round Canberra and for about $3.50 you can get an all day ticket, students and concessions less, this takes you all over the place, I found this very enjoyable, I went to several different areas, the dormatory suburbs etc. past very neat little houses, (none with so much as a solar power panel or a water tank!) there were very few kids on the streets, it was quite eerie. I guess everyone was indoors, most of the time, busy doing whatever it is they do.

I stayed at my usual YHA the one in Canberra boasted it had been voted the best YHA in a time period i forget and it did have an interesting view, the layout was very odd tho, i had a room under the kitchen, the whole floor i was on was under the kitchen and lounge room, i couldhear every step and chair movement on the floor above, and there was an all night drinking party taking place, i was not a happy camper ! The location of the YHA was great with the bus to the door in 2 interesting directions and 20mins from the city, but careful witch room you get. All that said i thoroughly enjoyed Canberra and will be going back very soon, but not to the YHA.

The climate of Canberra can be extreme, very hot and very cold. The air is fresh and clear its a very healthy place to live.