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Visit Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia and the eighth largest city in the country. Canberra is an aboriginonal word meaning « meeting place » which describes Canberra better than any other word. Canberra is the site of Parliament House, the High Court of Australia, and home to many memorials, galleries, and museums.

While Sydney and Melbourne were fighting over to see which one of their cities would be named the capital of Australia, it was decided to take an undeveloped area between the two cities and make that its capital. In many ways Canberra resembles Washington D.C.

It is different from many of Australia’s cities because it was a planned community from the start with wide streets, with less traffic congestion, and more modern buildings. It is the seat of Australian government.

Memorials, galleries, and museums

The Australian War Memorial is Australia’s national memorial dedicated to all of its armed forces. The memorial combines a shrine, museum, and an extensive archive. Art experts, art lovers, or just plain old art gawkers will be blown away by over 120,000 works of art held inside the National Gallery of Australia.


The gallery holds both Australian and international art. The permanent collection and traveling exhibitions are on display in 11 separate galleries. Artists from Monet to Jackson Pollack can be found inside the gallery’s walls and it’s even housed the « Masterpieces from Paris » collection, featuring Van Goh, Gauguin, and Ceyanne.

To think that one place can bring together the all-encompassing history of Australia may be a fool’s dream, which, unless you take a trip to the National Museum of Australia, which opened in Canberra in 2001, could just be a dream, but fantasy is made into reality. Take your time and enjoy using the state of the art technology and hands on exhibits that cover Australia’s social history, key issues, people, and event’s that have shaped Australia.

The National Library of Australia is the country’s largest reference library holding over 8 million items. The Library collects material produced by Australians, for Australian or about the Australian experience in all formats, and not just printed works.

Lake Burley Griffin

Completed in 1964, Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra. The Lake divides the city of Canberra into two parts, the northern section around the Capital Hill for national offices, and the southern section around City Hill down town with City Hall and shopping centres.


Public parks line the shore with popular recreational areas that are home to many festivals in Canberra and are the scene of the New Years Eve fireworks display.

The lake is also home to many water sports including canoeing, sailing, paddle boating, and windsurfing. There are also lovely parks for picnics and walking tracks and cycling paths.

Canberra Entertainment

Black Mountain Tower gives a 360-degree view of Canberra and the surrounding countryside. There are two open viewing platforms and the enclosed viewing gallery that present striking views of the city from 195 metres above the summit of Black Mountain.



The tower also houses the five star Alto Tower Restaurant, Canberra’s only revolving restaurant. Space and the final frontier can only be a pipe dream, unless you visit Canberra’s Deep Space Communication Complex. The Complex is part of the Deep Space Network run by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There is archival footage of the Apollo moon landings and active tracking and recording results from the Mars Pathfinder, Voyager 1 and 2.

The National Zoo and Aquarium, privately owned, and located at the western end of Lake Burley Griffin, and has both native and exotic animals including the largest collection of big cats in Australia along with 28 endangered species, as well as the largest inland saltwater tank in Australia.

Canberra, the Heart of Australia ?

Canberra is truly a unique Australian city. It was designed unlike an Australian city, but everything about it is pure Aussie. It is the holder of Australia history and culture.

You may not recognize it as Australia, but you cannot deny that it may very well be the heart of Australia.

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Must-haves to carry around

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