Exploring Canberra

Canberra is Australia's capital. It is located between Melbourne and Sydney. Apparently, they couldn't decide on which of Australia's two major southeast city's should be the capital, so they compromised and built a city between the two solely for the purpose of being the capital. 

When Australia decided to establish its capital of Canberra, they held an international competition for the design of the "Federal Capital City of the Commonwealth of Australia." An American, Walter Burley Griffin was awarded first prize in the competition for his design. Walter was a resident of Chicago and had never been to Australia. When Walter won the award, he declared that "I have planned a city not like any other city in the world. I have planned it not in a way that I expected any government authorities in the world would accept. I have planned an ideal city - a city that meets my ideal of the city of the future." Walter must have been surprised to hear that he won the competition, given that he did not expect any government authority to accept it.

On Thursday, Joe, Ricky, Tom, and I explored more of Canberra. First we drove to the Mount Ainslie overlook, where we saw some great views of the city of Canberra. 

Canberra is an unusual city. The city is obviously large (population 478,000), and is in fact Australia's largest inland city. Yet it does not have a big city feel, but rather feels like a smaller intimate city. You don't have to venture very far from the City Centre to encounter rural areas such as forests, farmlands, and nature reserves. Canberra's nickname is the "Bush Capital". You can see in this photo how the city is not a sprawling metropolis, but has rural areas nearby.

After leaving the Mount Ainslie overlook, we drove past the Old Parliament building and took a few pictures, then we drove past the current Parliament building, which is a more modern structure, and took a few more pictures.

Old Parliament Building

New Parliament Building

After this, we left the City Centre, and headed out to a suburb to visit Cockington Green Gardens. This unique place contains handcrafted miniature buildings and beautifully landscaped gardens. Motto: "It's the little things that count!" 

Entrance to Cockington Green Gardens

The display is divided into two main sections. The first contains buildings and scenes modeled after the architecture and culture of Great Britain.

Miniature Cricket Game

Miniature Stonehenge

The second display is the international display and contains lots of buildings from different countries. The model buildings on display are replicas from actual buildings. 

Norway

Venezuela

Argentina

Mexico

Peru (Machu Picchu)

Israel (Masada)

Slovenia (thinking of you, John)

Turkey

India

Since two of the four of us (Tom and Joe) are of Lithuanian heritage, we sought out the Lithuanian display. A large board with a display of where each country was located told us that Lithuania was number 26. We walked along, and eventually came to numbers 24 and 25, and then the display jumped to number 27, 28, etc. So where was 26 - Lithuania? When we ended at the gift shop, we asked the lady behind the desk about Lithuania and were informed that the Lithuanian display was undergoing repairs. At the end of the display of buildings were pictures - artists rendering of the buildings. So the only thing of Lithuania that we were able to view was the artists rendering.

Trakai Castle, Lithuania

After leaving Cockington Green Gardens, we headed for lunch at a Hipster Bistro on Lonsdale Street in the Braddock neighborhood. According to Tom, it's "where all the cool kids hang out." We ate at the 80/20 cafe, where they advertise "making cafe food healthier, without compromising on quality and taste." I think their advertising is right on target, as we all enjoyed our meal.

80/20 Cafe

Kambucha and green coffee

In the evening, the six of us (Tom, Millie, Ben, Ricky, Joe, and I) drove to the town of Gundaroo, about a half hour from Canberra, where we ate at the Gundaroo Inn which is the local pub. We ate outside and enjoyed some nice weather, although today was a little cooler than previous days. The pub was great and we had some really good food.

The Gundaroo Inn (Pub)

Ricky, Tom, Millie, Ben, and Kay

After we ate, we walked around the town. Gundaroo is like an old western town. and is described as a "remnant 19th century village." The town has quite the historic character with many of the historic buildings being used today as private residences or local businesses. Some of the businesses (new and old) are the Colonial Inn, the old Police Station, St. Marks Anglican Church, The Gundaroo Store, the Commercial Bank, a War Memorial, the Old Gundaroo Post Office, the Royal Hotel, and St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Here are some pictures we took as we walked around town.