Canberra – Day 7

With the hottest heatwave in SA and VIC history underway, and although Canberra is hotting up, we are not in any hurry to get out of Canberra. Even 37 has been an unbearable temperature for us with not being able to cool down at night. Given there is just so much to see in Canberra we really could stay for 2 weeks without any hesitation.

Today we did the New Parliament House tour. The woman was very knowledgeable and interesting, except she spoke 100 miles an hour, so you had to pay attention. The building opened on 9/5/88 taking 7 years to build. The designer Romaldo Giurgola, an Italian American, enjoyed the experience so much he emigrated to Australia.

The Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples'

The building was built to last the next 200 years. We forgot how many they said it was built to house, but there are usually up to 10,000 in the building on sitting days! Amazing stuff! The public areas are probably only about 5% of the building area that you can view, but the tour is impressive.

The Magna Carta

None the less for viewing: the best surviving copy of the four surviving copies Magna Carta (the beginnings of rights for the common free person, and modern laws and governments) dating to late 16th century, and I think the most beautiful document in Parliament; the Sorry Document. The script is just amazing. Its all hand coloured and calligraphy script, which in a day when people have trouble stringing a sentence together from too much texting, is incredible in itself! :-)

Parliament Roof Top

There is also magnificent pictures; including the Tom Roberts classic opening of the Federation of Australia in 1901. It took him 2½ years to complete and every person in the room has been painted with accuracy. Its also an enormous picture to boot. It was supposed to be Tom Roberts masterpiece. The one to make his name and get him some real commissions, but strangely it never did. Maybe it was because it took so long to get it on display people we’re interested anymore? I don’t know.

View from top of Parliament House over the top of the Old Parliament House through to the War Memorial

Went back to the waters’ edge to cool off.