Wednesday 20th December – Visiting Canberra, the nation’s Capital

We may have felt protected parked between the trucks at the services but it was anything but peaceful!  With various generators humming, engines starting and stopping and comings and goings overnight, it meant that we had a broken night’s sleep…. But it was free!! 

My phone estimated that it would take us four and a half hours to reach Canberra so we headed off, aiming to arrive about lunch-time.  On the way, I looked at the times of the free tours available of parliament house, which opened in 1988.  We were just going to miss the 2pm tour, so this meant we would have to go on the 330pm tour.   

Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra

The imposing front entrance of Parliament House

We stopped for lunch and coffee by Lake Burley Griffin before arriving at parliament.  A very impressive modern building, it was built into a hill rather than on top, so that the politicians are not looking down on the public and the public are welcome to go to the top of the building to enjoy the views above the parliament.  The tour was very informative. It made us wonder whether politicians here are as mistrusted and despised as in the UK?! Are politicians the same the World over or have we just got all the bad ones? 

The plush marble foyer

Inside the parliament building, the foyer is constructed entirely of marble from Europe in an echo to this nations European roots, then a huge, detailed tapestry hangs centrally in the Great Hall symbolising Australian nature and culture. 

The Great Hall with the symbolic tapestry on the back wall consisting of images of Australian trees and wildlife

As parliament was not sitting we were able to enter both the House of Representatives and the Senate chamber:

The House of Representatives on a busy day.... below - the Senate Chamber when we were there

We took the lift to the roof to get views of Canberra (below) before heading back to the RV.

We left Canberra about 430pm to strike out for the east coast, though we were not going to have much time left to be able to spend on the beach either tonight or in the morning before returning the RV.  It was a long drive on windy roads again (but not as bad as yesterday!)  We’d called ahead and booked ourselves into a coastal caravan park because we would arrive after closing time.  In fact it was almost dark when we pulled in about 730pm and made ourselves at home for the night.