It was so cold last night – the temperature in Canberra got down to 4 deg – this is not what we came here for!! We both had difficulty in sleeping as the quilt kept slipping down the bed. Tom even put the heating on for a short while at 5.30am! Today has been sunny and really warm in the sunshine but cool in the shade and once the sun had set, it was cold again. The weather forecast is for 3 deg tonight!! Melbourne has had daytime temps of only 17 deg – we hope it’s going to warm up a bit before we get there.
Well, as I said yesterday, we had a parliamentary day planned for today and that’s just what we did. We went to Parliament House first and enjoyed a great visit.
It’s enormous – (to give you an idea, the flagpole above the building is 89 metres tall, and the flag the size of the side of a double decker bus) and up to 8,000 people work there at any one time. We had a guided tour from a young lady called Casey, who was an excellent speaker and answered questions openly and with ease. Anything she was not sure of, she admitted and said to ask for the information at the entrance desk – refreshing truthfulness from someone in the political field! At the end of the tour, she admitted to having only been working there for 1 month! She’s a student reading politics and languages in a five year course. Her part time guiding job helps pay for her tuition and accommodation.
The design for the building was opened to international competition and a unanimous decision granted the task to an American architect, Romaldo Giurgola. Part of the original Burley Griffin overview for Canberra was for any public place to be “at one” with the environment. The most logical place to build it was on Capital Hill, but to build on top of the hill would make it “loom” over the rest of the city and be out of keeping with the democratic vision of Australians. So they dug out the hill, built the House, then put much of the soil back on the roof, so that the people could stand above their elected Parliament!
Giurgola designed the House on a “timeline” from the past to the future. The front approach has an Aboriginal mosaic centred in the courtyard surrounded by water. The gravel is red, reflecting the red gravel on Anzac Parade which is also the colour of the interior land in Oz. This is the past. The view from the front looks back at the old parliament building, up Anzac Parade to the War Memorial and Mount Ainslie.
This is the reverse view of the one Tom took on Sunday from the viewpoint on Mount Ainslie, looking down on the city. The wings of the House are like arms and the veranda over the front doors symbolises shade, shelter and welcome to visitors. Inside the foyer,
grey-blue marble columns and neutral coloured marble floors give a sense of coolness – it represents the grey-blue forests of the gum trees, with the floor shading as the flora below the canopy. The marbles all come from Europe to symbolise the era of immigration and colonisation. Then the Great Hall, in complete contrast,
lined and floored with Australian woods and dominated by an enormous tapestry (second biggest in the world, after Coventry) remind visitors of the natural resources of the country. This suggests the period of settlement in Australia.
The House of Representatives and the Senate are designed in a flat topped oval shape – the House of Representatives decorated in the pale grey blue-green of the eucalyptus and the Senate in the dull red of the interior, both furnished with Australian woods, both light and airy. These are all the present.
The rear of the building is where the future is decided – the Prime Minister’s office, the Cabinet rooms and all the Committee rooms where legislation is debated and formed.
It is a most impressive building - light, airy, welcoming and with a feel of a much older building – it was opened in 1988. There are 17 courtyards within the outer walls so everywhere you walk from one room to another, you look out onto green areas with water features (all of which are switched off at present because of the water restrictions). There are 2,700 clocks around – when members are called to Division, bells ring and lights flash on the clocks, and they have 4 minutes to get to their chamber. This is the same system that we use in our Parliament. Why 4 minutes? The story goes that when they were deciding how long to give members to get to the chambers, they took the oldest and slowest MP to the farthest extreme of the building and then told him to get to the chamber – it took him three and a half minutes, so they allowed for an extra half minute! Truth or fiction? Who knows!
Again, like in the War Memorial, there were several groups of schoolchildren and the army, navy and airforce cadets on educational trips. One party of children was being taught how parliament works by taking part in a mock parliament.
In both the Houses, as well as open public galleries and the Press gallery, there are glass fronted and soundproofed galleries specifically constructed so that school groups can watch and be taught about the working of Parliament, without disrupting it. These enclosed galleries are also used for families with young children.
There is a coffee shop with very reasonably priced fare and a shop, again not exorbitantly priced. Comparing it to the massive security that now surrounds our Parliament, Prime Minister and MP’s, it was like a different world. Of course, they do not have the security problems we have with the terrorist threat, but it just felt so casual. We had our bags x-rayed and walked through a scanner on the way in, but never saw an armed security officer or policeman all the time we were there, although there are lots of cameras.
We left the car in the underground car park and walked the 400m or so to the Old Parliament House. This was used until 1988 when the new House was opened – how they managed to fit everyone into the small rooms and Parliament chambers is mind boggling. We had a guided tour again, but, although our guide, who is a retired headmaster, was OK, we’d been spoilt by the impressive Casey. He had some interesting tales to tell about some of the past PM’s and other personalities. Did you know that there was one PM who only led the nation for 7 days? And that the Duke of Windsor refused to return to Australia to open the old Parliament House in 1927, because he’d been once and didn’t like it? It was built in the days when it was firmly British,with the design much more formal. The entrance hall here is much smaller than the new building, and is basically a classical square room, with a statue of the King (George V, Rex Imperator)overlooking all who entered.
and the architect incorporated many “secret” references to Britain. Two that were pointed out were the metalwork of the balustrades,
(stylised representations of the Union Flag), and the air vents, 
which were more obviously based on the flag The building was only meant to last for 50 years or so until a new House could be built, so it had lots of faults when Parliament eventually moved out 61 yrs later. More has been spent on the upkeep now that it is a Heritage building than when it was in use. It was an interesting experience to compare the two buildings but rather unfair in a way.
Having walked our feet off again, we came back to the cabin. I went and did the laundry, cooked dinner (well, baked potatoes) and here we are, chilled again as the temperature has dropped, ready to move on tomorrow. We haven’t actually decided where we’ll end up as there are several choices open to us. At this time of year, accommodation shouldn’t be a problem where we’re going – are these going to be famous last words? Bye for now.
Well, as I said yesterday, we had a parliamentary day planned for today and that’s just what we did. We went to Parliament House first and enjoyed a great visit.
It’s enormous – (to give you an idea, the flagpole above the building is 89 metres tall, and the flag the size of the side of a double decker bus) and up to 8,000 people work there at any one time. We had a guided tour from a young lady called Casey, who was an excellent speaker and answered questions openly and with ease. Anything she was not sure of, she admitted and said to ask for the information at the entrance desk – refreshing truthfulness from someone in the political field! At the end of the tour, she admitted to having only been working there for 1 month! She’s a student reading politics and languages in a five year course. Her part time guiding job helps pay for her tuition and accommodation.The design for the building was opened to international competition and a unanimous decision granted the task to an American architect, Romaldo Giurgola. Part of the original Burley Griffin overview for Canberra was for any public place to be “at one” with the environment. The most logical place to build it was on Capital Hill, but to build on top of the hill would make it “loom” over the rest of the city and be out of keeping with the democratic vision of Australians. So they dug out the hill, built the House, then put much of the soil back on the roof, so that the people could stand above their elected Parliament!
Giurgola designed the House on a “timeline” from the past to the future. The front approach has an Aboriginal mosaic centred in the courtyard surrounded by water. The gravel is red, reflecting the red gravel on Anzac Parade which is also the colour of the interior land in Oz. This is the past. The view from the front looks back at the old parliament building, up Anzac Parade to the War Memorial and Mount Ainslie.
This is the reverse view of the one Tom took on Sunday from the viewpoint on Mount Ainslie, looking down on the city. The wings of the House are like arms and the veranda over the front doors symbolises shade, shelter and welcome to visitors. Inside the foyer, grey-blue marble columns and neutral coloured marble floors give a sense of coolness – it represents the grey-blue forests of the gum trees, with the floor shading as the flora below the canopy. The marbles all come from Europe to symbolise the era of immigration and colonisation. Then the Great Hall, in complete contrast, lined and floored with Australian woods and dominated by an enormous tapestry (second biggest in the world, after Coventry) remind visitors of the natural resources of the country. This suggests the period of settlement in Australia.The House of Representatives and the Senate are designed in a flat topped oval shape – the House of Representatives decorated in the pale grey blue-green of the eucalyptus and the Senate in the dull red of the interior, both furnished with Australian woods, both light and airy. These are all the present.
The rear of the building is where the future is decided – the Prime Minister’s office, the Cabinet rooms and all the Committee rooms where legislation is debated and formed.
It is a most impressive building - light, airy, welcoming and with a feel of a much older building – it was opened in 1988. There are 17 courtyards within the outer walls so everywhere you walk from one room to another, you look out onto green areas with water features (all of which are switched off at present because of the water restrictions). There are 2,700 clocks around – when members are called to Division, bells ring and lights flash on the clocks, and they have 4 minutes to get to their chamber. This is the same system that we use in our Parliament. Why 4 minutes? The story goes that when they were deciding how long to give members to get to the chambers, they took the oldest and slowest MP to the farthest extreme of the building and then told him to get to the chamber – it took him three and a half minutes, so they allowed for an extra half minute! Truth or fiction? Who knows!
Again, like in the War Memorial, there were several groups of schoolchildren and the army, navy and airforce cadets on educational trips. One party of children was being taught how parliament works by taking part in a mock parliament.
In both the Houses, as well as open public galleries and the Press gallery, there are glass fronted and soundproofed galleries specifically constructed so that school groups can watch and be taught about the working of Parliament, without disrupting it. These enclosed galleries are also used for families with young children.There is a coffee shop with very reasonably priced fare and a shop, again not exorbitantly priced. Comparing it to the massive security that now surrounds our Parliament, Prime Minister and MP’s, it was like a different world. Of course, they do not have the security problems we have with the terrorist threat, but it just felt so casual. We had our bags x-rayed and walked through a scanner on the way in, but never saw an armed security officer or policeman all the time we were there, although there are lots of cameras.
We left the car in the underground car park and walked the 400m or so to the Old Parliament House. This was used until 1988 when the new House was opened – how they managed to fit everyone into the small rooms and Parliament chambers is mind boggling. We had a guided tour again, but, although our guide, who is a retired headmaster, was OK, we’d been spoilt by the impressive Casey. He had some interesting tales to tell about some of the past PM’s and other personalities. Did you know that there was one PM who only led the nation for 7 days? And that the Duke of Windsor refused to return to Australia to open the old Parliament House in 1927, because he’d been once and didn’t like it? It was built in the days when it was firmly British,with the design much more formal. The entrance hall here is much smaller than the new building, and is basically a classical square room, with a statue of the King (George V, Rex Imperator)overlooking all who entered.
and the architect incorporated many “secret” references to Britain. Two that were pointed out were the metalwork of the balustrades, (stylised representations of the Union Flag), and the air vents, which were more obviously based on the flag The building was only meant to last for 50 years or so until a new House could be built, so it had lots of faults when Parliament eventually moved out 61 yrs later. More has been spent on the upkeep now that it is a Heritage building than when it was in use. It was an interesting experience to compare the two buildings but rather unfair in a way.Having walked our feet off again, we came back to the cabin. I went and did the laundry, cooked dinner (well, baked potatoes) and here we are, chilled again as the temperature has dropped, ready to move on tomorrow. We haven’t actually decided where we’ll end up as there are several choices open to us. At this time of year, accommodation shouldn’t be a problem where we’re going – are these going to be famous last words? Bye for now.
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