Parliament House

Because I only scheduled one day in Canberra, I wanted to get the most out of the day. So I dragged my exhausted butt out of bed around 8am and set out at half past. I had managed to get a good 11hrs sleep but after only getting about 3 the night before and the added stress, I needed more.

I decided my first stop of the day to be Parliament House. The furthest geographically from my hostel and the fact it opened an hour before others, made it a good option to start with.

The building is beyond massive. In a crazy, sprawling show of new money and power. Covering many hectares and positioned at the point of the 'city triangle', it is quite a landmark.

Practically the entire building is built as a mirror image of itself, making many aspects symmetrical and line up perfectly. As someone who loves symmetry in modern architecture, I was very pleased.

The building is open to the public (for the most part) and has many facts and plaques by anything of significance which made my wandering around alone very simple. I could have done a tour but it was rather a lot of money so I chose not too.

At the entrance of the building on the second floor is a balcony. If you stand directly central and look through the columns you can see directly down the main lawns straight to the Old Parliamentary building, then over the lake and to the war memorial and finally mount Ainslie frames the background.

Also on this balcony is the larger than life statue of Queen Elizabeth 2. A statue she unveiled herself on the buildings opening in 1988. A very big day for Canberra and from all reports similar to the recent coronation. They were expecting more people, and may have spent a bit too much money.Read more