Darter

This is an Australasian Darter, commonly seen drying themselves off on the banks of Canberra's lakes, even on days when the temperatures don't make it into double figures. This one decided to go fishing soon after I took the photo, completely disappearing beneath the choppy waters as it looked for fish. They often float in the water with their bodies submerged and just their long, snakelike necks above the surface.

Catching the breeze

The National Museum of Australia extends over three levels. I took this photo from the top level - the Australian Journeys gallery - looking down into the children's area between the Old New Land  and Landmarks galleries on the ground floor, and further to the other part of the Landmarks gallery on the lower ground floor. The brightly coloured cupboards hide surprises for kids, and there's an activity booklet to go with them. There are also short red pillars with things for kids to look for in each area of the museum - a great way to keep them engaged and really looking at objects they might otherwise dismiss as just 'old stuff'.

That's a full-size windmill you can see. Obviously it's not set on the high tower familiar to anyone who's travelled through country areas in Australia, and it's quite impressive to see one up this close. This one has 24 blades - they can range from 11 to 36. The more blades, the slower the wheel will turn, but the less wind is required to get it started. It's 6 metres across, was made in the 1920s, and came from Kenya Station in Queensland. There's more information on this particular windmill on the museum's website.

One more from the garden

One more image from the Garden of Australian Dreams. This photo is taken from somewhere near Darwin in the Northern Territory. You see, the ground of the Garden is a giant map, or rather a number of maps superimposed. It's a strip of Australia, running down from the Tiwi Islands (behind me) and down past Birdsville (over the other side of the hill). As well as place names and the names of Aboriginal tribal areas, there are survey marks, roads, rivers and vegetation types. And across the whole thing, there is the word 'home' in many of the languages spoken in multicultural Australia.

There's more symbolism here, but I think tomorrow we'll go inside.

A monster in the dream garden?

If you look carefully at yesterday's photo, you might notice someone sitting up high, behind the palm fronds.

According to the landscape architect, Richard Weller:

Sitting on a small porch off the front of the Dream Home, and laughing at all of this, is the garden's gnome - a monstrous figure of an 'antipodean', the sort of mythical, mutated people that, back in the Middle Ages, Europeans thought might live in the antipodes.

The Great Australian Dream

A square patch of green grass, a blue swimming pool, a palm tree and a (somewhat stylised) house - the Great Australian Dream. And here it is, in the Garden of Australian Dreams at the National Museum of Australia. The sign on the wall behind the pool says No Swimming or Wading. Spoilsports!

Garden of Australian Dreams

Another angle on the National Museum of Australia. This photo is taken from the Garden of Australian Dreams - the large courtyard area inside the (kind of) doughnut-shaped building. I like how you can glimpse the lake from in here - the building was designed with its location firmly in mind.

The Garden is full of symbols. Designed by Richard Weller, a landscape architect who was a couple of years ahead of me at the University of NSW, it's been quite a controversial space, but kids especially seem to love it.

A knot from the inside

It's school holidays here, and the kids and I desperately needed to get out of the house after being stuck inside with awful weather. So off we went to the National Museum of Australia. I worked here for a year in 2002-03, and we've been numerous times since I moved on, but recently there have been some major changes to the galleries and the branding, so it's well worth another visit if you haven't been for a while.

The museum is a social history museum, and now uses the tagline 'Where our stories live'. The brochures refer to it, and us, being part of a 'national conversation'.

From the outside it's much the same, and while there have been a few changes to The Hall, pictured here, it's still a huge, airy space, used for many temporary exhibits, special activities, and as a general meeting place. There's a cafe serving meals and coffee just to the right of this photo, with tables and chairs along the large windows overlooking Lake Burley Griffin.

The museum website says of this space:

Visitors enter the Museum through the Hall, a great light and open space with curving walls, windows and ceilings. To the architects, the Hall is like a huge rope knot seen from the inside. It is a metaphor for the strands that tie Australians together as a nation, the weaving together of the lives and stories of Australia and Australians.

National Museum of Australia

 

The 30 metre high loop near the entrance to the National Museum of Australia is the most visible part of the 'Uluru Line', which begins with the covered walkway at the entrance and (physically) ends in a huge red concrete wave up past the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) building. Conceptually, the line continues on in a north-west direction to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock).

There's currently an exhibition entitled Not Just Ned: A true history of the Irish in Australia at the museum. It opened last week, and runs until the end of July. Admission: adults $10 / children $5 / concession $8 / Family $22. 

National Museum of Australia 

Lawson Crescent
Acton Peninsula
Canberra ACT 

Freecall 1800 026 132 

Phone (02) 6208 5000 

Open 9am-5pm daily (except Christmas Day)

Free general admission