The Daily Boomerang

If you ever have to drive from Sydney to Melbourne why not by pass the Hume Highway and take the scenic route through the Snowy Mountains instead? The Snowy mountains is some of the best scenery in all of Australia that believe it or not few Australians have actually ever taken the time to see. They are missing out, but that doesn’t me you should miss out on it too.

To reach the Snowy Mountains you have to drive to Canberra and from the nation’s capitol you have to proceed South on Highway 23 to the city of Jindabyne. Highway 23 running south from Canberra is better known as the Monaro Highway:

While driving on the Monaro Highway the road runs parallel to the under-appreciated, rugged bush land scenery of Namadgi National Park:

Once Highway 23 escapes the beautiful environs of Namadgi National Park the road quickly is surrounded by open grazing land:

Once Highway 23 reaches Cooma you need to drive straight through the city and continue down the highway towards Jindabyne. The Monaro becomes Highway 18/23 at this point.

Cooma is a small town of 7,000 people and serves as the headquarters for the Snowy Mountains Scheme that is a series of hydroelectric dams that provides 3.5% of the power for the nation’s energy needs. Really not much to see in the town besides a museum dedicated to Snowy Mountains Scheme history of the city.

Once outside of Cooma the terrain opens up even more with lush grazing land sprinkled with large rocks:

With such lush green grass for grazing it is no wonder why the sheep here are so large:

Here is the obligatory picture of my Jeep along the highway:

Make sure as you travel through Cooma that you stay on the road going to Jindabyne. It is nearly impossible to miss the signs but you will know you are going the right way when you see this in front of you:

The snow capped Snowy Mountains or Snowies as the locals call them, are beautiful and quite a sight when you consider you are seeing these snow capped mountains in Australia of all places. Snow capped mountains is not the first thing that comes to mind when people think of the land Down Under, but Australia has plenty of them:

Eventually the Monaro Highway will reach Lake Jindabyne at the base of the Snowy Mountains:

You can see in this Google Earth image that Jindabyne lies at the very base of the Snowy Mountains and hugs the shore line of the lake:

The Monaro Highway skirts around this huge lake and the water is just stunningly calm and clear:

The closer you get to the shore the more stunning it is:

To the west of the lake the snow covered slopes of the Snowy Mountains tower over the lake:

Finally the highway reaches the small town of Jindabyne:

Jindabyne is a well known outdoors holiday spot in Australia due to its great fishing, bushwalking, and the nearby Thredbo ski resort. Jindabyne is also well known because of an Australian movie titled and based on the city. I have seen the movie before and it isn’t to bad. It is worth watching just to see the spectacular Snowy Mountain scenery in the film.

Anyway it is the end of the road for the Monaro Highway here in Jindabyne, however another great Australian drive that shouldn’t be missed begins here as well. The Alpine Way is the highest and one of the most spectacular highways in all of Australia that begins in Jindabyne and ends at the New South Wales/Victoria border.

If you had the chance to take the day drive on the Monaro Highway from Canberra to Jindabyne and thought that was a spectacular ride, you haven’t seen anything yet until you drive the Alpine Way.

I have now posted all my pictures of my multiple trips to Canberra and have listed all my prior postings into a simple archive below.  I will update the list with any other postings I make related to Canberra and if I visit the ACT again in the future.  In the mean time feel free to read all of my prior postings, but make sure to read my overview about Canberra first.  Hopefully these postings inspire some of you out there to visit the Australian national capitol.  It is definitely worth a visit.   

Must Sees in ACT
The Australian War Memorial
The Canberra Parliament House
The National Museum of Australia
The Old Parliament House
The Japanese Gardens
Scenes from Lake Burley-Griffin

Worth A Visit If You Have the Time
The Telstra Tower
The National Archives
The National Zoo and Aquarium
The Australian Coat of Arms
NASA Deep Space Communications Complex
Australian-American Memorial
Spring Time in Canberra
Namadgi National Park: Honeysuckle Creek
Namadgi National Park: Orroral Valley

One of the must see locations in Canberra is definitely the National Museum of Australia:

However, I don’t call a must see for its exterior which is one of the ugliest for a museum I have ever seen:

The museum is a must see for what it has inside:

The museum is huge and covers every aspect of Australian history; everything from its prehistoric history, to when the Aborigines landed here 50,000 years ago, to when the first fleet of colonists arrive, all the way up to modern times today.  You could easily spend a whole day here going through the museum because it is that huge. 

The museum has the world’s largest collection of Aboriginal artifacts to include some excellent educational displays such as this map of the various Aboriginal tribes in Australia:

As you can see there is an amazing amount of Aboriginal tribes in Australia with most of them speaking completely different languages and dialects.  Something interesting I had a chance to see is that there was a certain time during the day when they open their entire archive of Aboriginal artifacts for the public to see.  A guide will take you into the storage area for the Aboriginal artifacts and give quite an informative brief about the Aborigines and the artifacts.  I highly recommend checking with the museum staff and finding out what time they do this tour.  Very, very enlightening tour if you have any interest in Aboriginal culture. 

In the center of the museum is this very large and odd park:

Like I said before you need to enjoy this museum from the inside, not the outside.  Here is a good summary of everything you can see inside of the museum from their website:

At the core of the Museum and its exhibitions is the National Historical Collection, nearly 200,000 objects representing Australia’s history and cultural heritage.

When the Museum was established in 1980, it inherited a disparate collection mainly featuring horse-drawn vehicles and a few cars. Since then, Museum curators have actively gathered objects for the collection. Some have been donated, some purchased, and some inherited from former collecting bodies such as the Australian Institute of Anatomy (the preserved wet specimens collection, including the heart of racehorse Phar Lap) and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Aboriginal art collection).

At different times, special emphasis has been given to acquiring particular objects. The Museum now has the world’s largest collection of Aboriginal bark paintings, with more than 1,600 works by numerous artists from throughout Australia. There are also 95,000 Aboriginal stone artefacts from surface sites found all over Australia.

Other diverse features include journals, photographs and equipment of Australian women scientists; convict clothing, leg irons and tickets of leave; a large technology collection, including historical vehicles; protective clothing and equipment used in the 1994 Sydney bushfires; and a growing assortment of Australian political cartoons. There are also thousands of objects relating to early settlement and later migration, including the Museum’s largest object, the boat Hong Hai, in which 38 Vietnamese ‘boat people’ arrived on Australia’s northern shores in 1978.

Here is something I could really appreciate inside the museum, classic cars:

There are plenty of cars on display inside and not all of them are beautiful classics:

Anyway like I said before this museum is a must see for anyone with any interest in the history of Australia and if you are visiting Canberra I would assume you would have some kind of interest in Australian history to begin with. 

My favorite park in all of Canberra that is worth spending lunch at are the Japanese Gardens snuggled against Lake Burley-Griffin near the Yarralumla foreign embassy sector of the city:

The history of the Japanese Gardens is inscribed on a stone plaque in the front of the gardens that reads:

The people of Nara City, Japan present these Kasuga Stone Lanterns to the people of Canberra as a symbol of the friendship that exists between our two cities and between the peoples of Australia and Japan this gift was donated by the citizens of Nara City in the name of world peace.

April 1997
Yasunori Ohkawa
Mayor of Nara, Japan

For those that have never been to Japan, Nara is a beautiful city that once served as an ancient capitol of feudal Japan.  The city is filled with many historic temples and palaces.  However, the city is most famous in Japan for its friendly deer that are considered holy and wander around the city.  The deer are all tame and some even know how to bow to tourists when feeding them special deer biscuits. 

Even though there are no deer in Canberra, spring is the perfect time to visit the city and its Japanese Gardens because of the colorful cherry blossoms that fill the city and this park:

In the very center of the park is a large stone lantern that overshadows Lake Burley-Griffin in the background:

A walking path circles around the garden welcoming people for a scenic stroll:

In the middle of the gardens is a wooden gazebo you can eat your lunch in and ponder the stone garden and cherry blossoms that surround the park:

Here is a final look at the beautiful stone pagoda of the Japanese Gardens:

Like I said before the Japanese Gardens are definitely worth stopping at and eating a picnic lunch, especially if you have never been to Japan before to appreciate Japanese gardens.  This garden is no where near as meticulously maintained as the gardens in Japan but it is easily the most beautiful garden in Canberra by Australian standards. 

As much as I love Canberra the one thing I do not like about it is the tacky Telstra Tower that looms over the city no matter where you go:

No matter how many times I look at it, the Telstra Tower just does not blend in with the rest of the city.  Anyway the Telstra Tower sits on top of Black Mountain and rises from the mountain for a heigth of 195 meters, so it is a fairly large tower:

Despite its heigth, I can’t even recommend it for its views because it is expensive and you can get similar views from the lookouts on other mountains around the city.  For example here is a view of the city from Black Mountain just below the tower: 

Forgive the grayness of the picture but it was raining when I drove up to the top of Black Mountain the day I took these pictures.  Anyway there a few trees in the picture, but overall not a bad view of the city.  You can see the National Museum on the peninsula at the bottom of the picture and the Captain Cook Fountain shooting up water in Lake Burley-Griffin.  The mountains of Namadgi National Park can be made out in the distant horizon. 

Here is a close up look of the Parliament House:

If you got the money go for it and take a trip up the tower but as you can see, similar views are available on the mountain without paying the cost. 

A place worth checking out following a visit to the Parliament House in Canberra is a walk down to the Old Parliament House located right in front of the new one:

The Old Parliament House served as the seat of the Australian government from 1927-1988.  As you can see in the picture below the building was one of the first structures built in Canberra:

The British queen did not visit the building until 1954 where she opened up parliament. Judging by the above picture it is no wonder why the British queen did not visit Canberra until 1954.  The city was literally constructed in the middle of no where.  Some today would still say it is in the middle of no where.

From the back of the Old Parliament House you get a picture perfect view of the current Parliament House:

When walking down to the Old Parliament House it is worth walking around and seeing its adjacent gardens:

When the Old Parliament House served as the seat of the government these gardens were open only to the parliament members to serve as a place to relax along with being a place to hold private conversations.  Walking around the building it is easy to recognize the classical colonial British architecture of the building:

From the front entrance you have a view across Lake Burley-Griffin towards the Australian War Memorial:

Once you walk into the Old Parliament House you first enter a large lobby that has a number of statues of British royalty along with a head sculpture of each Australian Prime Minister.  Here is the sculpture for one of Australia’s most infamous Prime Minister, Harold Holt:

Holt is famous because he was Prime Minister for only about a year before he either mysteriously drowned or was eaten by a shark just at a beach not to far from Melbourne.  Rumors persist to this day with Australians that he was actually picked up by a Chinese or Russian submarine and other suggests aliens.  Like I said the guy is infamous here.  Anyway the people of Melbourne did what any mourning city would do when there national leader drowns at a beach near their city, they named a swimming pool after him. 

From the front lobby you can then take a self guided tour to where ever you want to go in the building.  The building is huge and you can pretty much walk in and view every room in the building.  Each room has a display in the room explaining its significance and history.  It will take you quite some time to see every room, at least half a day.  If you don’t have that kind of time at least check out the parliament chambers:

Then check out some of the key offices such as the office of the Prime Minister:

Imagine being able to walk around the oval office and sit in chairs that world leaders sat in.  That is what it is like visiting this office.  It is pretty cool to say the least. 

I wouldn’t quite call visiting the Old Parliament House a must see during a visit to Canberra but it is close and worth checking out if you have the time. 

If you are into history or would just like to learn a little bit more about Australia an interesting place to visit in Canberra is the National Archives building:

The National Archives holds a number of important documents from the founding of the nation along with documents and diagrams that proclaimed various laws and proclamations passed during the country’s history.

An example of this is this diagram below of the sketch that won the competition to design the nation’s capitol:

During my visit to the National Archives they had a special display of war time propaganda posters used in Australia:

Most of them were pretty interesting to look at but the funniest one I saw was this poster:

The display said that the Australian government during World War II had to display these propaganda posters because the American soldiers stationed in Australia were constantly getting in fights with the Australian soldiers over women.

The archives also had this propaganda poster from the aftermath of 9/11:

These posters were supposedly put up around America after 9/11 but this is the first time I have seen one. I wouldn’t call The National Archives a must see location in Canberra but it is an interesting place to check out if you have a deep interest in history and some time to waste in Canberra.

If you have time during a visit to the ACT, a trip to the National Zoo and Aquarium may be worth a look; especially if you have children. It is a pleasant 15-20 minute drive to reach the zoo located on the outskirts of Canberra past the Scrivener Dam to the west of the city. Entrance to the zoo is a little expensive by American standards but pretty typical for Australia. The entrance fee is $23.50AUS per person or if you have your family you can pay $69.50 to get the whole family in which may be a good bargain for those with large families.

The zoo is a good introduction to Australian wildlife if you have never been to a zoo in Australia before. It contains all the standard Aussie wildlife such as kangaroos, koalas, tasmanian devils, emus, etc. However, the zoo contains other popular zoo wildlife as well, such as giraffes, llamas, lions, cheetahs, etc. It’s most unusual animal in fact maybe the tigons, which are the offspring between a lion and a tiger. It is illegal to breed tigons, but these tigons were actually bred in a circus before being discovered and then taken to the National Zoo to live out there days there:

Besides the native Australian wildlife and the typical zoo attractions, the zoo also has a large aquarium to familiarize people with the vast amounts of aquatic life that lives in Australian waters. The aquarium was probably my favorite part of the zoo. Some of the fish in Australia are absolutely enormous plus the aquarium had plenty of sharks for people to gawk at as well:

Another nice feature of the zoo is that there is an area where you can walk freely with the kangaroos and the emus. When I pulled out my camera to take a picture of this kangaroo, he actually hopped over directly in front of me and started flexing his muscles in a pose. It was a bit startling at first because I didn’t know if he wanted to fight or not since I wasn’t familiar with kangaroos at the time. However, he just stood there and kept striking a pose for me and then went on his own way again:

The emus on the other hand pretty much just ignore you and go about their business. They are quite large, in fact they are the world’s second largest birds behind the ostrich of Africa, and could probably give you a pretty good injury if you got them mad enough. Here at the zoo they are friendly enough to walk up to them and get a good picture:

No Australian zoo would be complete without koalas. The koalas at this zoo are quite shy and I was actually only able to see one of them in this tree. Koalas if you didn’t know sleep up to 20 hours a day because the eucalyptus leaves they eat in the gum trees have very few vitamins in them thus not providing much energy for the koalas. To conserve energy the koalas sleep constantly and really only wake up when they are eating. As you can see this guy was actually a wake when I got a picture of him.

The tasmanian devil was probably the strangest animal I saw because the animal would not stop running around. It stayed in constant motion the whole time, quickly running around his enclosure along the same path and direction. The tasmanian devils are only found on the island of Tasmania and are meat eaters. They have powerful jaws for tearing up meat, but they are not hunters. They are actually scavengers and eat dead animals they find. They are also marsupials, just like most of the Australian wildlife, meaning they are distantly related to both kangaroos an koalas:

The most unique aspect of this zoo is that you can actually pet and feed some of the animals. Sounds pretty cool, right? Well it comes at a cost and the cost is a whopping $150 dollars. For $150AUS dollars you can pet and feed some of the animals like the lions and cheetahs at the zoo. That was well out of my price range, but it was in the price range of many other people there though. When the zoo keeper announced that she was now taking reservations to feed and pet the animals you could instantly see all the kids pulling on their dads coats pleading to let them feed and pet the animals. The zoo must be making some pretty good additional income from this program because a lot of parents spent the $150 bucks to let their child play with the animals.

Overall, like I said before if you haven’t been to an Australian zoo then this a good place to acquainted with Australian wildlife. There are better zoos out there, but even the better zoos I have seen don’t have the program where you can pet and feed the animals, which is definitely a unique aspect to this zoo that may be of interest to some people out there. So if you have a half a day to kill in the Canberra area a trip to the National Zoo is good way to spend it.

Something else I learned from touring Canberra is what the Australian coat of arms represents. The current coat of arms was officially established in 1912 and is often seen in many places in the country. This picture you see I took at the US-Australian War Memorial in Canberra:

The shield you see in the center of the coat represents the military defending the country and the symbols of each of the six states of Australia are represented on the shield. Currently Australia still has six states and two territories. One territory is the Northern Territory obviously in the north of the country and the other is the Australian Capitol Territory where Canberra is located.

Above the shield is the Commonwealth Star which is also seen on the Australian flag which has seven points with six of the points representing the six states and the seventh point representing all Australian territories.

Then finally the most obvious part of the seal are the two animals, the kangaroo and the emu. Both animals are only found in Australia and Aussies often claim that they are the only country that eats the animals on their coat of arms.  The animals are supposed to represent Australia’s forward thinking because both animals cannot walk backwards; only forward and Australia is always going forward. After living here a little while, I would have to tend to agree.

 An interesting site I found worth checking out in the Canberra area was the NASA Deep Space Communication Complex located about an hour outside the city in the absolute middle of no where:

The drive out to the site was quite pleasant seeing the Great Dividing Range high country grazing areas filled with herds of sheep and a few cows:

It was also interesting to see the where the 2002 bush fires raged at as well. Thousands of square miles of forest was burned down during those bush fires and are slowly but surely recovering.  The destruction from these bushfires is easily the worst I have seen in Australia:

The space center is composed of a number of NASA’s deep space antennas including the largest one pictured above and has a museum explaining NASA’s various satellite achievements and even has a moon rock on display, best of all admission is free. So not to bad of way to spend an afternoon:

NASA uses the antennas at the site to communicate with the various satellites in space operated by NASA. NASA needs three antennas in order to capture data being sent from the satellite in order to create the three dimensional trajectory of where the satellite is at. The three sites are located rather equidistant from each other in America, Spain, and Australia. This site recently played a key role during the high profile Cassini mission that landed the probe on Saturn’s moon of Titan.

Not to many visitors were at the site when I visited which isn’t surprising considering how far out of the way this place is, but the museum keeper says they do a lot of educational programs for nearby schools that come to the site for field trips. I spent a couple of hours checking out the museum and had lunch my wife there before taking off.

The coolest thing inside the museum to check out is the moon rock from the July 1969 Apollo 11 mission:

I had plenty of time on my hands in Canberra, but a drive out to the site isn’t worth it for someone who has only limited time in Canberra. If you have the time, the site is worth checking out and can easily spend a half a day or more checking out the site and driving through the surrounding country side.