Out and about in Canberra

I think I mentioned in my previous post that a fair bit of my time here in Canberra is going to be spent catching up with friends, and although some of you may disagree, I personally don't think that blogging about who I had lunch/dinner with or what we had for the BBQ makes all that interesting reading.  Hence why it's been a few days since my last post - I decided to save up a few things that I've been doing and put them all together for you into something that will hopefully be a bit more interesting.

As you already know, Canberra is the capital city of Australia and as such, the parliament of Australia meets here - in Parliament House.
The building was designed by New York based architectural firm of Mitchell/Giurgola and opened in 1988 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  It was a design which involved burying most of the building under Capital Hill, and capping the edifice with an enormous spire topped by a large Australian flag.  At the time of the construction, it was the most expensive building in the world at more than A$1.1 billion.  Federal Parliament meetings were first held in Melbourne until 1927.  Prior to 1988, the Parliament of Australia met in the Provisional Parliament House (more on this building later), which is now known as "Old Parliament House".  The principal design of the structure is based on the shape of two boomerangs and is topped by an 81-metre flagpole.  The flag flown from the 81 metre flagpole is 12.8 m by 6.4 m, about the size of half a tennis court. The flagpole weighs 220 tonnes and is made of polished stainless steel.

(Yes, since the building is built into the hill, the roof of the building is grass and people can actually walk on the roof of the building.  There will be a couple of photos coming up (hopefully - I haven't done it yet), in my post on the Australian War Memorial, when you will be better able to see how Parliament House is built into the hill.)

Parliament House contains 4,700 rooms and many areas are open to the public. The main foyer contains two marble staircases and the main foyer also leads to the Great Hall which has a large tapestry on display.  

Parliament House has a significant art collection, with over 4000 works of contemporary art by Australian artists.  The tapestry here is particularly unique.  The artist, Arthur Boyd (1920-99), was commissioned to create a painting for the Great Hall in the new Parliament building.  Boyd did this, but when his painting was hung in the Great Hall it was decided it was too small for such a large room - instead his painting became the design for the tapestry which is more than 4x the size of the original painting.   The subject of Boyd’s painting, and the tapestry, is the dense forest of eucalypts which grow in south-eastern New South Wales.  Boyd’s subject matter compliments the native timbers used throughout the Hall.  His design also emphasizes the immensity of the landscape, with the horizon obscured and the trees continuing both above and below the canvas, and to each side. The tapestry surrounds one of the doorways of the Great Hall, giving people passing beneath a sense of moving through the landscape.  

The House of Representatives chamber is decorated green while the Senate chamber has a red colour scheme.  Between the two chambers is the Members' Hall which has a water feature and is not open to the public. The Ministerial Wing houses the office of the Prime Minister and other Ministers.  Parliament is sitting right now and so I had the opportunity to go into the House of Representatives for question period ... quite interesting.  Unfortunately though, because Parliament is sitting I was not allowed to take my camera into either the House of Representatives or the Senate chamber so I don't have any photos to show you.

In 1972, four Aboriginal men arrived in Canberra from Sydney to establish the Aboriginal Embassy by planting a beach umbrella on the lawn in front of Parliament House (now Old Parliament House).  The Embassy was established in response to the government's refusal to recognize Aboriginal land rights.  The beach umbrella was soon replaced by several tents and Aboriginal people and non-indigenous supporters came from all parts of Australia to join the protest. During the first six months of its life in 1972 the Embassy succeeded in uniting Aboriginal people throughout Australia in demanding uniform national land rights and mobilised widespread non-indigenous support for their struggle.  In January 2012 the Aboriginal Tent Embassy celebrated its 40th anniversary, making it Australia’s longest standing site of political agitation.
Things are quiet at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy right now as the community is away marking the recent death of one of their respected elders.

So that was my day on Thursday - spent mostly at Parliament House.  On Friday I decided to take advantage of the nice weather (sorry to all of you who are reading this just after the snow has fallen) and do some more walking around the part of the city where Parliament House and many of the national institutions (i.e. the National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery that you've already read about) are located. 

I started Friday at Old Parliament House, known formerly as the Provisional Parliament House, which was home to the Federal Parliament from 1927 to 1988.  The building was intended to be neither temporary nor permanent—only to be a ‘provisional’ building that would serve as a parliament for no more than fifty years.  In 1923, Canberra was a small, dispersed town with few facilities and no administrative or parliamentary functions. The building of Old Parliament House effectively doubled the town's (very small) population.
After Parliament relocated to the new building, there was a debate on whether or not to demolish Old Parliament House.  During the 1920s it had been argued by some, including Walter Burley Griffin, that the building's position would interfere with the vista of a permanent Parliament House.  After considering the building's historic significance in the history of twentieth century Australia, the government decided that it should remain and today the building houses the Museum of Australian Democracy to celebrate democracy and Australia's political history.

This memorial commemorates the reign of King George V who, as the Duke of York, presided over the opening of the first Australian Parliament in 1901.  Construction on this memorial began in 1941 but was not completed until 1951 when the bronze figure of King George V, cast in England, was added.

The Magna Carta Monument is a symbol of the special relationship between Australia and Britain.  It was dedicated in 1997, on the 700th anniversary of the sealing by King Edward I of the 1297 issue of Magna Carta, an original copy of which is now on display in Parliament House.  There is also a time capsule buried beneath this monument which is to be opened in 2101.

West Block and East Block offices are two of three original buildings in the parliamentary area (Old Parliament House is the third).  West Block was originally named Secretariat Building No. 2 reflecting the intention that, following the move of parliament from Melbourne to Canberra, each minister would be supported by a small secretariat while most departmental staff remained in Melbourne.  During World War II, West Block housed the Prime Minister's Department and East Block the Defence Secretariat.  Today West Block continues to house government offices and East Block is the National Archives of Australia.

The area that is now the Parliamentary region in Canberra was originally covered by sea and when the site was being excavated for the building of one of its roads this rock formation was uncovered.  This geological snapshot clearly shows how the Canberra region was formed and has changed over hundreds of millions of years.  Unearthing this during the construction in the early 1970s led to a major reassessment of how geological events over 400 million years ago impacted on the Canberra region.

The High Court of Australia is the highest court in the Australian judicial system.  The first sitting of the High Court took place in Melbourne in 1903 and remained there until it moved to its permanent home here in Canberra in 1980.  The functions of the High Court are to interpret and apply the law of Australia; to decide cases of special federal significance including challenges to the constitutional validity of laws; and hear appeals, by special leave, from federal, state and territory courts.  The forecourt and main entrance are approached via a long, paved, ceremonial ramp.  The 40-metre tall building contains 4000 square metres of glass.

The Public Hall in the High Court is a large area with a 24-metre high ceiling supported by two large concrete pillars.  Access to all three courtrooms is from the Public Hall.

No. 1 Courtroom is used on all ceremonial occasions and for all cases where a Full Bench of the seven Justices of the Court is required to sit.

No. 2 Courtroom is generally used in cases where a full court of five Justices is sitting and is also used for hearing applications for leave to appeal by video-link.

No. 3 Courtroom has been designed for matters dealt with generally by a single Justice.  It has a jury box so that a trial can be conducted should such a case come before the Court.

The artworks of Reconciliation Place, to be added to over the years, carry inscriptions and images on various themes and events, enabling individual interpretation and understanding of Australians' shared journey towards reconciliation.  The location of Reconciliation Place, in the parliamentary area on the traditional land of the Ngunnawal people (Indigenous people from the Canberra area), establishes the reconciliation process physically and symbolically at the heart of Australia's democratic life and institutions.

All of Canberra's parliamentary area and its national buildings and institutions are all located on the foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin.  Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra. It was completed in 1963 after the Molonglo River - which ran between the city centre and the Parliamentary area - was dammed.  It is named after Walter Burley Griffin, the American architect who won the competition to design the city of Canberra.
The lake is located in the approximate geographic centre of the city and is really only an 'ornamental' body of water - it is 11 kilometres long; at its widest it measures 1.2 kilometres; it has an average depth of 4 metres and in places is only 1 metre deep.  Its maximum depth of about 18 metres is near where its flow is regulated by the 33-metre tall Scrivener Dam.  Unfortunately, although swimming in the lake is not common it is used for rowing, fishing, sailing --- and little boat tours!

So guess what I did in the afternoon ... I took myself on a little boat tour!

Now I was just looking back at this post and I've decided to end this one here and continue on with a separate post about my boat ride and beyond.  I guess I've done a bit more over these past couple of days than I thought I did and it seems this post is getting a bit long.  Stay tuned for Part 2 if you're interested.