NSW and the ACT Part II- Canberra and the SE Coast

HRH QE II

Canberra, the national capital awaited us. Like Washington, DC, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was carved out in a space between two powerful states, in this case New South Wales and Victoria. And like DC, it was laid out in a circle with spokes out from Capital Hill. Opened in 1988, the Parliament House appears to be a giant 81 meter-high flagpole without a dome. The roof is grass-covered.

The interior is well worth a visit with beautiful wood and many mosaics, tapestries, paintings and other decorative arts. You can take an elevator to the roof for views over the city.
Much of our time was spent in the museums, like the National Gallery of Australia with its large display of contemporary and historic Australian arts, both Aboriginal and other.
The National Museum of Australia is worth seeing for the architecture alone,

National Museum of Australia across the lake (Telestra Tower behind)

Museum interior

but also houses  a myriad of important displays of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artifacts. I hoped to see the champion racehorse Phar Lap's heart (he was born in Timaru, NZ), but alas it was deemed too fragile for public display at this time. The best I could do was a photo of this postcard.

Legendary bushranger Ned Kelly's armour was on loan from Melbourne for a special Irish in Australia exhibit.

Reconciliation Place commemorates and honors those that have struggled for indigenous rights.

For fun, we took in the panorama

from Telestra Tower on Black Mountain,

Telestra Tower

walked through the rain forest gully in the National Botanic Garden, and watched clips from old Aussie movies and TV at the National Film and Sound Archive. The weather wasn't the greatest during our ACT visit, but we got a good overview of the city in 2 1/2 days.

With only a few days left before returning to Sydney, we drove to the coast, alighting in Batemans Bay. A cozy beach town and fishing port, it felt a lot like Fort Bragg and home. The beaches to the south and north are unspoiled and a favorite spot for surfers

 and waterfowl.

 We drove around Jervis Bay, then inland a bit to the idyllic Kangaroo Valley

Kangaroo Valley

with the oldest suspension bridge in the country.
Down Under, you are warned to watch out for some unusual things.

Watch Out for Koalas

..and Wombats

The tiny town of Berry is chock-a-block with good restaurants and shops, Mendocino-like. One last night in the bustling town of Wollongong (pop. 280,000), then a 90 minute drive back to Sydney to return the rental car and board the Sun Princess for the 17 days and the next phase of our travels.

Coastal Lookout

New South Wales Tales Part I: Wandering Through Wagga Wagga

 After eight great days in Sydney, it was now time to explore some of the rest of the state of New South Wales. We had 16 days at liberty before the next scheduled activity, a cruise leaving Sydney on Saturday, April 16th. At first, my plans were overly ambitious. The state of New South Wales (NSW) may not look too big on the map, but Australia is about the size of the lower 48 US states, but here, there are only six states plus the Australian Capital territory  (that is 42 less if you do the math). It turns out, that makes NSW bigger than Texas and about as wide. That is BIG! And the Western 2/3's looks a lot like west Texas: a LONG way between dots on the map. I got a little more realistic, realizing I didn't want to spend 8-hour driving days.

Blue Mountains- Everyone agrees, the first stop out of Sydney to the west has to be the Blue Mountains, so we rented a car and hit the road. Two hours to the west, it is a completely different environment, cool with mists wafting in and out. The road climbs up about 3,300 ft. on top of ancient limestone ridges, with clefts looking into prehistoric valleys, as wide but not as deep and much older than the Grand Canyon. A train was also built through here, making it a popular vacation spot for the last 150 years. Towns like Katoomba are picturesque and verdant, and the views and trails are outstanding. The most famous formation is called The Three Sisters, which they say was named after a local legend. Three beautiful princesses were turned into pillars of stone by an evil sorcerer. Their father was turned into a lyrebird who roams the area seeking to release the spell. I did manage to spot said lyrebird,

Lyrebird

so named because when the male's tail-feathers open peacock-like they resemble the ancient stringed instrument. The bird is also a very skilled vocal mimic One guide said he heard one perfectly imitate the sound of a 1962 VW van engine. 

One popular local attraction is cleverly called "Scenic World". You can take the "world's steepest funicular railroad", with its 52 degree incline, into the valley. The railway is a remnant of coal mining in the 19th and 20th centuries. At the bottom, there is a nicely done elevated walkway through the rainforest, with plenty of flora and fauna to appreciate.

Magpie

A cable car will take you back up, and for good measure, a gondola will sweep you across the gorge with literally a birds-eye view of Katoomba Falls.

Katoomba Falls

Corny, but fun, with spectacular view over the Jamison Valley.

Jamison Valley

To the north are more fantastic canyons and waterfalls. It was near here in 1994 in a remote valley, a stand of coniferous trees of a type thought to have been extinct for millions of years was found and named the Wollemi pine. The exact location is still a closely guarded secret.

Grose Valley

Bridal Veil Falls/ Govett's Leap

Continuing west, the western edge of the Blue Mountains is Lithgow, a rail stop and old mining town noted most for a few things. The first steel blast furnace in the country was here, and although it was built little over a century ago, most 3,000 year-old Egyptian sites are in better shape.

Bosh skull at ruined steel mill, Lithgow

It was also the home of Marjorie Jackson, aka "The Lithgow Flash", a gold-medal winning sprinter in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

The Lithgow Flash

We continue further west, through rolling plains to Dubbo, a farming and mining town with a fabulous zoo, the Taronga Western Plains Zoo. It is a branch of the Sydney Taronga Zoo dedicated to preservation of many endangered species presented in an open range style with lots of space and no cages. the visitor takes a several mile-long stroll, drive, or bike ride to visit the animals. At times it seems as if you might be in the Serengeti, particularly with all of the African animals. We were more interested in the Australian creatures.

Wombat

Koala

Wallaby

Short-beaked Echidna

 Dubbo is also proud of its new Western Plains Cultural Center, and also their Western outlaw past. You can take a mixed media tour of the Old Dubbo Gaol and see the hologram of the hangman and gallows.

Gaol

The whole region has a slightly twisted American west Dodge City Kansas feel, although here they seem to revere their outlaws, theives, and murderers (called bushrangers) even more than we do. At least in US Western lore, we have legendary lawmen too. Perhaps it has something to do with their penal colony past, but people are more excited about tales of  desperadoes like Ben Hall and especially Ned Kelly. Dubbo was the furthest west we would venture, choosing to now turn southward.


Parkes was content to be known as the home of the radio telescope featured in the 2000 Aussie film The Dish, but now also hosts the yearly Parkes Elvis Festival in January for his birthday, as well as a museum of Elvisiana. Why? Because he is the King, I guess ( EP never visited there, though).

Canowindra is a tiny but fascinating place, and considers itself the hot air balloon capital of Australia. We just missed the annual championship. The visitors information center also houses the irresistibly-named "Age of Fishes Museum" (irresistable to nerds like me, anyway).In the 1950's, a sharp-eyed bulldozer driver noted an unusual slab of rock that turned out to contain fossils of tens of thousands of long extinct armor-plated fishes. The town is very proud of this, and our tour was memorably guided by a particularly enthusiastic and well-informed volunteer.

Cast of fish fossil

In Cowra we learned of the August 1944 suicidal breakout of 1000 Japanese prisoners of war which resulted in 231 Japanese dead along with four Australians. Ironically it has led to a very close bond between Cowra and Japan, and a mutual dedication to the goal of world peace. There is a Japanese war cemetery and a Japanese Garden. Also, the bridge supports over the Cowra River has been painted with contemporary Aboriginal-inspired paintings. 

Another Echidna

Continuing south took us through Cootamundra which is proud to be the birthplace of the legendary Don Bradman (the Don), who as perhaps the greatest batsman in cricket history could be called that sport's Babe Ruth. (As they say, you can look it up. I had to, being previously ignorant of that fact.) 
Junee has a fun organic licorice factory tour,

and we continued on down to Wagga Wagga. This town of 47,000 is on the banks of the serpentine Murrumbidgee River and has a very pleasant mid-western feel. It is home to some nice museums, one dedicated to Aussie glass art, a botanic garden, and lovely river and lakeside walking paths.
Tumut is a short drive to the east, and is on the western side of the Snowy Mountains. Tumut was a delightful small creek side town in the foothills with good pub food and friendly people. A community effort saved the 1920's vintage movie theater which they run as a non-profit. The chairman of the board was tidying up when we popped our heads in, and he gave us an impromptu tour.

The Snowy Mountains are considered the only Alpine area in Australia, and has the continent's highest point, Mt. Kosciusko at 2228 meters (7,352 feet). There is a ski area and it is the center of the Snowy Mountain Scheme, one of Australia's largest and most ambitious public works projects. The series of dams, lakes, and hydroelectric generators took 25 years and 100,000 workers to complete in the '50's through the '70's. You may also have heard of the region from the book and movie "The Man from Snowy River", or the more recent film "Jindabyne". I found it nothing like that. Having been to the Sierras, Rockies, and New Zealand Southern Alps, I was expecting something a bit more majestic. Even the locals admit the mountains are more of the "rolling" variety than steep and craggy. It is in fact difficult to find an impressive photo of Mt. K., even in the official tourist information. Jindabyne was a small newish resort town out of season (the original town is beneath the new lake).

Statue of a Polish Explorer on the shores of Lake Jindabyne

It was an interesting stop, none the less, as we had a woodsy drive through the National Park, and an interesting meal at the local mom and pop Persian restaurant (I eschewed the camel kebabs for the lamb), and a $10 cook-your-own steak at our casino/motel (pretty good piece of beef, or at least I think it was beef).
Cooma was the headquarters of the Snowy Mountains Scheme and has a visitor's center with displays and dioramas that convey magnitude of the project.

Nanny Goat Hill, Cooma, NSW

Relief Map of the Scheme

We took a side trip about one hour away to the quiet town of Bombala to visit the Platypus Reserve. We were hoping to espy the unique and shy creatures in their natural environment. No platypodes were spotted, but we did spend a pleasantly peaceful hour or two on the riverbank.

On to Canberra, the capital.

Fighting Foo in Sydney

We are in Sydney, Australia, and it is a city we like very much. Getting here was a bit more difficult and a day later than anticipated, due to unspecified "mechanical difficulties" of the Air New Zealand plane scheduled to pick us up in Noumea, New Caledonia. This led to an extra 8 hours in the small, hot, and humid international airport. We were too late to make the connection to Sydney, so ANZ put us up for the night in Auckland, and we were off again refreshed and ready to go.

My Photo of Dave (trust me)

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters did a Christchurch benefit concert in Auckland the day before, so our delay put us in the airport and on the same flight as Dave and the Foos to Australia (as he has said, if he knew they would become famous, he would have come up with a better name). Airport security discouraged photo taking, so I tried to get this shot unobtrusively at the luggage carousel
....pretty lame, I know.

Real Photo of Auckland Concert from the NZ Herald

As for Sydney, most of friends in New Zealand said they prefer Melbourne. Well, it must be really special, because so far Sydney has been a treat. The Opera House and Harbour Bridge are iconic and amazingly photogenic (no bad angles, really). You have a compulsion to take picture after picture of them. The story of the Opera House and its Danish architect Jorn Utzon is a fascinating one, full of public outcry, massive cost and time over-runs, politics, firing and recrimination, and eventual triumph and recognition as one of the 20th Century's masterpieces. Many consider it still "half done", because none of Utzon's detailed plans for the interior were ever implemented. In fact, there are two large concert halls there, and political pressure caused a last minute switch of the "elitist" opera house into the smaller of the two, resulting in an orchestra pit too small to perform Wagnerian opera, and deemed so unhealthily loud by musicians that the there is a complete replacement of the orchestra after intermissions.  

There are a number of lovely well-preserved sandstone buildings from the 19th Century, and beautiful parks, fountains, and open spaces.

Hyde Park with St. Mary's Cathedral in backround

Some of these have been turned into museums illustrating the history of the nation. The Hyde Park barracks Museum was designed by a convict and built in 1818-19 to house convict men and boys, with many other uses over the years. The site has been carefully restored and utilizes imaginative interactive computers and murals to tell the story of this place, and of European immigration to this country.

Hyde Park Barracks Museum

In many ways, it is the Ellis Island of Australia. Families can go and search the data-base for records of their fore-bearers. 18th and 19th Century Europe went through hard times, depression, industrialization, and urbanization. People were sentenced to exile to Australia for stealing bread or chickens, forgery, and all sorts of minor offenses, mixed in with some more serious ones. The people did not have the skills to easily adapt to this harsh, arid, and infertile area.

Sleeping Quarters

In  1848-52, the building was used to house Irish orphan girls, victims of the Potato Famine and desperate conditions at home. They were brought in to help correct the gender imbalance, as a majority of the convicts and settlers were male, and then subjected to severe discrimination and hard work, and were married off quickly. The museum honors these matriarchs of the nation and their descendents. 
Another important part of Australia is the shameful treatment of the indigenous peoples. History is full of countless examples of man's inhumanity to man, from American slavery and treatment of native Americans to the Holocaust, and this is one more sobering lesson. You may have heard of some of these injustices through films such as Rabbit-Proof Fence which shows families being involuntarily separated, but it is staggering to be reminded that the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders were only granted full citizenship and civil rights after a 1967 referendum of the non-indigenous voters, amending  the constitution (it did pass by a 90% vote, however).
Other impressive Heritage Buildings include:

Art Gallery of NSW

Town Hall

Sydney Observatory

There are lots of interesting museums to see, including the Australian Museum, with displays to entertain children of all ages.

Skeletal Tableau, Entitled "domestic Bliss"

Dare-devil Tourist at Play with T-Rex

It is a great place for shopping, or window-shopping, with many stylish shops and arcades, both new and old.

"The Strand" Shopping Arcade

There seemed to be an unusually large number of chic and very attractive women in heels with skirts up to here and legs down to there (and probably an equal number of good-looking men, although I didn't particularly notice). Australia in general, and Sydney in particular, prides itself on its diversity, and many ethnic groups are well-represented here.
The Botanical Gardens abut the Opera House are a must, and we enjoyed an informative walking tour there focusing on native plants. In addition to the plants, indigenous and introduced, there is abundant fauna, such as this lorikeet.

Rainbow Lorikeet

The cockatoos and flying foxes are as thick as thieves here, make a terrible racket, and kill their host trees. We spent a total of  eight nights in Sydney, plenty of time to take in some out-of the-way spots, like the largest formal Chinese garden outside of China,

Chinese Garden of Friendship

and the Harry's Cafe de Wheels, a Sydney institution since 1945. From a trailer along-side the Woolloomooloo Wharf, they serve a variety of hot meat pies, preferably covered with mashed potatoes and peas, eaten al fresco, like Tommy's Burgers in LA or Nathan's hotdogs on Coney Island.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels

Continuing with New York City comparisons, just as taking the Staten Island ferry is a must, so is taking the ferry to Manly Beach. It is a great, inexpensive way to cruise the harbour. You land at the harbour-side beach and walk across a small isthmus to the ocean-side beach.

Manly Beach at Twilight

Tucked in at the opposite end of the Sydney Harbor Bridge is the eye-catching amusement park called Luna Park. The manically-grinning painted face stares out across the water, luring you in like Pleasure Island from Pinocchio.

Tourist at Fun House Mirror, Luna Park

And no visit would be complete without walking across the bridge. I did not pony-up the $200 for the full 21/2 hr walk over the arch, but for $10 you can climb up the southeast pylon, and it is free to take the pedestrian or bike path. The view is spectacular.

View of Port Jackson from the SE Pylon, Sydney Harbour Bridge

Off now to the hinterlands of  the state of New South Wales.