Round Australia: Day 122

Day 122 Canberra

Today we did the National Museum. We drove in and it is tucked away on this tiny crook in the lake with another building that just has AIATSIS on it, very suss and I have yet to look it up to see what it was. We unloaded the Beast and headed into the museum. The front lady welcomed us and gave us maps and we went through the front foyer displays and one of them is a wagon that was made by a guy who went around the country towns sharpening saws and generally fixing stuff. It is an absolute hoot. It has machines on it everywhere, bits of this and that stuck on and they still have over 1000 items from it in storage! We went into the café as looked at the maps to make a plan. We left there and went into the entry for the displays and the guides there grabbed us and told us to go into the revolving theatrette. It is a small theatre that showcases what is on in the museum. As per normal there were busloads of kiddies around so the guide got me in first so I could position the Beast and then got the kids in. the theatre revolves as it goes through the presentation and when you finish, you are facing an exit the takes you into the museum.

The museum is spread over 3 floors with most of their stuff on the middle one. There is a heavy

Saw sharpener

Saw sharpener tractor

accent on indigenous displays which is fine as they have displays from all round Australia, and you cannot say that about the rest of the museum. It is very heavy on the East coast. Western Australia does not really appear until they go to mining. Like the Art Gallery, they have a colonisation section where they show stuff from early colonies such as NSW, Vic, Qld, SA and Tas but apparently we did not have an early colony in WA as there is nothing there! Spoilt the whole effect but I suppose just because we pay for most of it, you cannot expect to have a fair share. That gripe aside, it was not bad

Old Melbourne Cups

Platapus skeleton

display. They have some really cool stuff like Cook’s canon, his small magnifying glass, some weapons from bushrangers, early settlers memoirs and items and so it goes. They have a great little film on images of Australia that has glimpses of our past that have been recorded on film and starts before WWI and through to present.

We spent the whole day there and finished when they threw Maureen out the door at 5. I spent the last

Tasmanian Tiger head

Water Buffalo catcher

little while down on Lake Burley Griffin watching the yacht club do sailing lessons and a few of the more experienced members have a fly about. There was this guy who had a NACRA there who was just hooning around on the light breeze but the lake is so narrow that no sooner had he got it up on one hull, he had to turn around and go back.

It is hard to put in words what we saw so I have put it in pictures instead. The museum is great, it is free and there is enough to keep you busy for a day.