Waltzing along...

First thing to say about the National Museum is what a funky building. Some people will think it looks ridiculous, but there are lots of 60s and 70s concrete constructions tucked away in Canberra and I like the way this breaks the mould. Outside, is the somewhat perplexing “Garden of Australian Dreams”. A garden of most Australian’s dreams is a green lawn but anyhow, this had a different take.


Here we are looking at the outside of the building with good old Lake Burley Griffin reflected.





The museum was good and as it is free and a nice bike ride around the lake, definitely worth a return visit. Some of it looked at the terrible things the Poms did when they arrived but this grew into a celebration of everything that it iconic about the New and the Old Australia. Here follows a series of things Australian…

The hats of the Surf Life-saving clubs across Australia:

A sign from the Northern Territory relating to the everpresent threat and renewing essence of fire. There was an interesting video clip on the Canberra bushfires of 2003 which was just so amazing to see the suburban streets turned into rivers of flames and flying embers.

These are aboriginal spearheads which have been found buried in the iron red earth across the sunburnt country:


This is the Melbourne Cup, a sign of a gambling and sports obsessed country, whose obsession with whacking the Poms knows no end!






And a couple more Aussie icons followed as I cycled along to nearby Black Mountain.

The Beach (?!?!)


And the bush…


Once a jolly swagman,
Neilio