Across the lake

Part of the view across Lake Burley Griffin, taken from the National Arboretum. From here you can see the Russell Offices, with the Australian-American Memorial - the Russell Eagle, the National Library (centre) and the National Carillon (just to the right of the library. The hill just behind Russell is Mt Ainslie.

Geometry in the capital

This is part of one of the sides of Canberra's Parliamentary Triangle. It extends from Parliament House along Kings Avenue and then to Mt Ainslie (behind me in this photo), across to City Hill, and back to Parliament House via Commonwealth Avenue.

Lake Burley Griffin is between where I was standing for this picture and Parliament House - not that you can see it with all the trees. The Parliament House flagpole is 81 metres high and weighs 220 tonnes. The flag itself is about the same size as the side of a double-decker bus.

The eagle

As part of our travels yesterday, we passed through the suburb of Russell. This eagle is at the top of a 73 metre high column - the Australian-American Memorial - located in a square at the front of the Russell Defence Offices, at the end of Kings Avenue.

The memorial was opened in 1954 by Queen Elizabeth II, and symbolises the ties between Australian and US military forces in World War II. It cost 100,000 pounds to build, of which 63,000 pounds was raised through a nation-wide appeal.

The 11 metre eagle and sphere sits on an octagonal aluminium column, sandblasted to look like stone. There are a series of ladders inside the column, but these are not accessible to the public.

Australian-American Memorial
Sir Thomas Blamey Square
Russell ACT 2600