xenith | Thursday, part I (Reply)

Don't want to write these any more, which is silly but there it is. So this one might be short on words. I have some hope once I actually get started it'll be better.

So I did retake that photo. I still meant to go over to the fountain thing and take a photo, but I didn't.

Note clouds. Forecast is for much rain. After much frowning at map and Centenary bus route, I planned a schedule for today that involved getting off at the Russell Offices (admin centre for the defence forces & the Dept of Defence) and walking down to the lake.

These two building with the arched walkways encircling them are the Sydney Building and the Melbourne Building, one on each block (generally, I'm walking through the former, and outside shots are of the latter). I read somewhere, probably a streetside plaque, that they were originally the only shopping buildings in the City. Now if I remember correctly, they were built from the 1920s to the 1940s, which would make them amongst the oldest Canberra-era buildings in Canberra.

I wanted to take a photo of the Australian-American Memorial because it was there, but the camera didn't want to. The more "tricks" I tried, the less it cooperated.

I was allowed to take photos of the nearby trees and buildings that had the memorial in the background though. Gah. Anyway, from the Dept of Defence website, the Australian-American memorial that was "opened by Her Majesty the Queen on 16 February 1954, [and] it expresses the deep gratitude felt by Australians to American service personnel for their assistance to Australia during the War in the Pacific from 1941-1945", also on that page photos of it under construction.

Anyway, I walked down through various car parks to the lake and Aspen Island, which is home to the National Carillon.

She gets around this queen person.

The sound is quite "soft" for a large bell installation (it has 55 bells, I think), more of a tinkle than a clang. I didn't get to hear a performance. That would be quite something.

Along the bridge are these locks with names of couples (I assume).

I walk back along the edge of the lake, and take some photos of the other side, but the grey sky makes them rather bleargh. That's best of them. The National Library (on the right) looks rather classical from across the lake.

Memorial to the Merchant Navy.

The city centre.

Now that would be a good photo to take if the sky was right.

Next stop is Blundells Cottage, a stone cottage built about 1860. Obviously one of the older buildings in the area, but it pre-dates Canberra and the ACT (Australian Capital Territory), hence my comment above :)

It originally housed farm workers on the Duntroon estate (which was part of the land acquired to create what is now the ACT) and now the cottage is a little museum.

There aren't many workers cottages now operating as house museums. Where they exist as part of larger property, they're invariably used for storage or offices or accommodation (because people just want to look at the impressive main house, you know, even if said houses all look the same after the first few. I generally don't bother with house museums at all, unless there's something particular about a place that interests me).

I have more photos (bet you weren't expecting that) but I'll put them in their own post, and probably on 432 Pages.

That was actually quite a walk.

NATIONAL EMERGENCY SERVICES MEMORIAL

The National Emergency Services Memorial honours the thousands of men and women who serve and have served in Australia's emergency services.

The memorial provides a place to reflect on those who have fallen or perished while carrying out their duties for the benefit of the wider Australian community.

There is a building of much emptiness. (Anzac Park East if I have the direction right.) What is it that makes a building look empty as opposed to a building in use but neglected?

Next destination is the War Memorial, at the end of Anzac Parade, where I said I wasn't going. But I thought about it and it's a Big Place and if I wasn't involved in the WWI stuff, it would have been on my "to do" list as a matter of course. (I did have a quick visit there last time I was in Canberra, enough to let me know that I needed to go back with more time to spend.) First though, I need to walk up that road. There is a reason why I'm going to walk up there rather than make use of the Centenary bus.

At the start of the Parade...

The New Zealand Memorial commemorates the unique friendship between New Zealand and Australian people. The two kete or basket handles express the shared effort needed to achieve common goals in both peace and war, and to acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of the servicemen and women of both countries who fought shoulder to shoulder on foreign soil.

The memorial was designed through a collaboration between artist Kingsley Baird and architects Studio of Pacific Architecture, both of Wellington, New Zealand.

The paving patterns upon with the kete handles stand represent the weaving of a basket and express the interweaving of lands, people and cultures. Daisy Nadjungdanga from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory designed the paving beneath the western handle. Toi Te Rito Maihi and Allen Wihongi from Northland, New Zealand designed the paving beneath the eastern handle. The surface of the paving is made from Canterbury, Coromandel and Golden Bay stone.

At the centre of the paving on each side is buried soil from Gallipoli, the birthplace of the ANZAC tradition. Inscribed on the paving are the names of the campaigns in which New Zealanders and Australians have fought together.

And that's the other handle. There are memorials to various conflicts and branches of the armed forces right along the Parade.

But before I could get to them, I see this. The sign says:
CHURCH OF
ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
Foundation stone laid 1841 Church consecrated 1845
St John's Churchyard consecrated 1845
The Schoolhouse Museum, Canberra's first school c.1845

So of course I have to go in for a look.

It's a little stone church.

with a graveyard. A panel just inside the gates says the "graveyard is distinctive in Canberra. It was the first to be consecrated on the Limestone Plains and is the only remaining graveyard next to a church." (Of course, graveyards usually are next to churches, but I guess not always.

Now these two headstones (for Mr Allan McLachlan, superintendent on the Duntroon estate, and his 18 year old son) have those quadrifoil things. For those coming late to the quadrifoil things question, I first came across them in the rather odd Catholic cemetery in Richmond (that's the one in southern Tasmania) and there's a number in the Catholic section of Cornelian Bay Cemetery (Hobart). However, I've also seen the occasional one elsewhere like the Uniting church graveyard at Deloraine and now an Anglican church graveyard in Canberra. Those latter ones have all had Irish surnames. I assume there's some symbolism to them, rather than the people picking out the headstone just liking the shape, but what it is, I have yet to work out.

A sky of much whiteness.

The sign on the door says "Welcome. Come in and experience the church's history, beauty and peace."

So I do. (Just flicking through the photos then to find a close up of the door sign, I noticed there's a stone in the wall from Canterbury Cathedral in the UK but photo isn't good enough for me to read the accompanying plaque.) I will note here that sitting down is a good idea, because my feet are starting to get tired of all this walking.

I see this little building and I wander over to see if it the school building.

There is a sign saying "We're open" and another sign saying it is open on days that don't include Thursday. I ponder this conflict of signs, and resolve the issue by asking the helpful lady just inside the door if the place is open. Turns out they just open today because there is a group visiting from a retirement village or similar, but "You are welcome to come in and have a look around too."

So this is the schoolhouse. This room is the school room.

And then there are four adjoining rooms that formed a house for the school master and family. "Literally a school house," I said. It's set up as a little museum about people and nearby places. (Oh, that's the other thing cottages are used for, displays about other things. Displays about other things are good, but they draw away attention of the actual building as a place that matters in its own right and as a home, if that makes sense. Like a large display cabinet.)

There is the kitchen.

Actually, it's three-roomed house with the school room at the back (right) and the kitchen etc. in the space in the middle, but joined to the main building.

Back to Anzac Parade and the memorials. This is the first one I see, and it's quite, well, dramatic when you're not expecting to see it. I thought about including one photo of each of the memorials in this post, but for most of them are designed to walk in or through.

This one. Someone told me a few weeks ago that the nurses have the most boring of the Anzac Parade memorials. Seen from the road, it is. But if you walk through it, I think it's the best one. So I might keep them out and put them in their own post because that's more interesting. Also this is getting long.

I was partway along when this group of schoolkids just appeared from no where and buzzed all around me (and said sorry when they got in my way) and then buzzed off down the road.

Almost at the end. That's looking back towards Parliament Houses. Feet very tired of ALL THIS WALKING. It's only been two days (Tuesday pm, Wednesday, Thursday am). They don't make feet like they used to :(