Canberra

Down to Earth and at Pavement Level

The Visitor Centre at Regatta Point is one of the most pleasant places to spend some time in Canberra. On the outside and nearby is the Cook globe, carefully marked with his three expeditions, at the front of which we posed with our bikes and set just into the Burley Griffin Lake is the Cook Jet Fountain. On approach to the centre is an area where people with grievances or with an insight into a part of the world they would like others to know about can display their billboards of information.

If they could walk around that area now I think the Burley Griffins would be pleased, they would have found a place where ordinary people matter. I know I have mentioned this before; a local person with a passion for their home and working in a visitor centre is a gem and we found one such treasure here in the form of an elderly gentleman who took the time to show us lots of things at the centre before letting us loose.

If you read about the BG’s who won the design competition for the new capital city over a hundred years ago now you will see that due credit is given to Marion for her profound contribution to the task whereas in other places she is not mentioned. I Googled the couple with reference to their ideas for the new capital only to find that after the initial use of their basic design most of their subsequent ideas which were egalitarian and faithful to the democratic ethos were replaced with grandiose statements of political power and superiority and after much argument Walter ended up as one member of a committee instead of spearheading the team.

I wonder what Canberra would be like today if their ideas had been carried out to completion. The capital looks to the outer world for recognition and inclusion as the beating heart of Aussie, they talk of how diverse and culturally rich is their society but that diversity only includes Aborigines in the written word and not daily reality and political life. From what we saw for ourselves and learned from Tyronne those in power are defensive when it comes to the Aborigines that live close by and have been shoved aside. It is the enlightened ordinary folk who see Canberra as it really is and our guide at the centre was one of them.

We spent an engrossing hour there and then enjoyed a cool wind down on the bus as it completed its circuit and returned us to its stand near our YH home. We concluded the great day of exploring with a second visit to our ‘local’ Shorty’s and prepared our minds for our planned early morning bike ride around the east end of the Lake.

The ever friendly and helpful young staff on the reception desk at the YH suggested we avoid the west end of the lake as there were some hills. Normally of course we wouldn’t baulk at the mention of a hill but mindful of our less than perfect physical condition and with the Ghan trip just a few days away we didn’t want to make matters worse.

Down in the basement at 6.30 the next morning, where we had been sent to choose our steeds I spotted a rather classy pair of turquoise bikes that had our names on them. We went back to reception to pay up and collect the keys, donned our helmets raised the bikes up on their hind wheels so they would fit into the lift, negotiated the windy ramp from the lift down to street level, crossed the road and got on board. Ooooh, no back pedalling but pressure backwards on the pedals braked the bike. That was a new one on me, could be interesting I thought.

We had been surprised at how few bikes are used around the area considering the wide pavements and cycleways. A big bike rental kiosk on the shoreside of the lake looked permanently closed and when we stood opposite a government office at a bus stop just before 9.00am one morning one in five employees arrived by bike, the rest by car.

It was still pleasantly cool with promises of temperatures in the 40’s later. Mr and Mrs BG were lovers of nature so they would have been delighted at how unspoilt is the east end of the lake. Cattle still graze the area and where the lake once more becomes the Molonglo River paddle boarders and canoeists exercise in the 18’ cool of the morning. There were other cyclists, very serious they were, and we had to keep clear as they raced past, a few doggy walkers but not many folk around. We stopped at a bridge over the river in the marshland reserve and a kind gentleman took our photo for posterity.

Then it was back to civilisation, an area of apartment blocks looking over the lake, a wide leafy lakeside promenade, the Library where we had explored James Cook’s expeditions then back over the main bridge to the city and into the pretty family oriented Commonwealth Gardens. The pond and the Pelican looked so attractive in the early morning sun and as I soaked up the lovely vistas and watched the pelican catch his breakfast I heard raucous sounds above me.

Fruit bats flying from tree to tree and hanging upside down like acrobats (!) in macs. Thousands of them, more than I had ever seen together except perhaps in Shoal Pass in Fiji. They were struggling with the heat and in places were dying of excess heat and falling out of the trees poor things.

Our ride came to an end after two lovely hours and we returned our bikes before having a late breakfast and clearing out of our room, leaving our bags in store ready for our flight to Adelaide. But first just one more stop in the Capital, the Canberra Museum and Gallery.

Canberra does quirky quite well. Decades ago a man was given the task of designing bus shelters. There are still many in situ. They are made of concrete, rounded at the corners with little windows that have an annoying habit of popping out in a wind. Painted with attractive colours they have become a likeable part of Canberra life. So the designer then produced a series of acrylic paintings of them and they are on display in this museum. As is a collection of over 500 snow domes from all over the world on loan from a lady who needed some shelf space back, that’s what you do with a short history, display the mundane and trivial.

Also on display was a selection of art works by Sidney Nolan, particularly unusual and pertinent are the carcasses. At the time of our visit and due to the heat and climate change, waterholes, billabongs that have always held water are drying up with the inevitable fatal effect on the animals.

We relaxed in the lounge of the YH awaiting our taxi to the airport for what turned out to be a very bumpy flight to Adelaide.