Museum sights in Canberra
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A
War Memorial
In a stately position, overlooking Anzac Pde and Lake Burley Griffin, the magnificent war memorial is one of the finest museums in the country. This genuinely moving memorial provides a fascinating insight into how battle forged Australia’s national identity, with an enormous collection of pictures, dioramas, relics and exhibitions that detail and humanise wartime events. For military-history fans, there’s also plenty of weaponry and uniforms – most of the heavy machinery is arrayed in Anzac Hall, which features an impressive sound-and-light show. Entombed among the mosaics of the Hall of Memory is the Unknown Australian Soldier, whose remains were returned from a W…
reviewed
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B
National Archives
Canberra’s original post office now houses the National Archives, a repository for Commonwealth government records in the form of personal papers, photographs, films, maps and paintings. There are short-term special exhibits, but the centrepiece exhibit is the Federation Gallery and its original charters, including Australia’s 1900 Constitution Act and the 1967 amendment ending constitutional discrimination against Aboriginal people. Records of military service and emigration can be accessed for those keen on exploring their ancestry.
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C
National Film & Sound Archive
This excellent archive preserves Australian moving-picture and sound recordings for posterity. Highlights include the absorbing permanent exhibition Sights + Sounds of a Nation, and 100 years of audio and visual recordings, from Norman Gunston’s idiosyncratic interviews to the 1943 Oscar-awarded propaganda flick Kokoda Front Line. There are also temporary exhibitions, talks and film screenings.
reviewed
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D
Royal Australian Mint
The Royal Australian Mint is Australia’s biggest money-making operation. Its gallery showcases the history of Australian coinage; here you can learn about the 1813 ‘holey dollar’ and its enigmatic offspring, the ‘dump’.
reviewed
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Australian War Memorial
In a stately position, overlooking Anzac Pde and Lake Burley Griffin, the magnificent war memorial is Australia's most visited museum, and one of the finest in the country. This genuinely moving memorial provides a fascinating insight into how battle forged Australia's national identity, with an enormous collection of pictures, dioramas, relics and exhibitions that detail and humanise wartime events. For military-history fans, there's also plenty of weaponry and uniforms – most of the heavy machinery is arrayed in Anzac Hall, which features an impressive sound-and-light show. Entombed among the mosaics of the Hall of Memory is the Unknown Australian Soldier, whose remai…
reviewed
