Showing 1-11 of 11 results
-
Australian War Memorial
In a stately position, overlooking Anzac Pde and Lake Burley Griffin, the magnificent Australian War Memorial is one of the finest museums in the country. It houses an enormous collection of pictures, dioramas, relics and exhibitions detailing the events, weapons and human toll of wartime. Most of the heavy machinery is arrayed in Anzac Hall which features an impressive sound-and-light show.
-
Blundells' Cottage
On the edge of Lake Burley Griffin sits the stone-and-slab Blundells' Cottage built in 1860 to house workers on the surrounding estate, and now a reminder of the area's early farming history.
-
Canberra Museum and Gallery
The stylish Canberra Museum and Gallery is ostensibly devoted to Canberra's social history and visual arts. The interesting permanent exhibition, Reflecting Canberra , includes a charred dishwasher salvaged from a house destroyed in the 2003 bushfire, while visiting collections have run the aesthetic gamut from traditional Palestinian crafts to Korean sculptors.
-
National Archives of Australia
Canberra's original post office now houses the National Archives of Australia, a repository for Commonwealth government records in the form of personal papers, photographs, films, maps and paintings. Records of military service and emigration can be accessed for those keen on exploring their ancestry.
-
National Film and Sound Archive
The excellent National Film and Sound Archive preserves Australian moving-picture and sound recordings for posterity. Highlights include the absorbing permanent exhibition Sights + Sounds of a Nation , 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.
-
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia has a stunning collection of over 100,000 works of art representing four major areas: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander, Australian (from colonial to contemporary), Asian and international. The spectacular Art of the Indian Subcontinent gallery showcases one of the largest Subcontinent collections outside of India.
-
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia was established in 1901 and has since accumulated over six million items, most of which can be accessed in one of eight reading rooms. Bookings are required for the free, customised guided tours or you can simply join the Behind-the-Scenes Tour, which takes place on Thursdays.
-
Old Parliament House
The venerable Old Parliament House was the seat of government from 1927 to 1988 and is a great place to get a whiff of bygone parliamentary activity, be it peering through the spyhole into the prime minister's office, re-acquainting yourself with the 1975 dismissal, silently addressing the House of Representatives, or buying your own Hansard bookend from the gift shop. There are free guided tours, or pick up the Self-Guided Tour brochure.
-
Parliament House
Opened in 1988, Parliament House was designed by Romaldo Giurgola of Mitchell, Giurgola & Thorp architects, winners of a design competition that attracted 329 entries from 28 countries. Its splendid interior incorporates different combinations of Australian timbers in each main section and more than 3000 original artworks.
-
Royal Australian Mint
The Royal Australian Mint is Australia's biggest money-making operation. It has a gallery showcasing the history of Australian coinage, where you can learn about the 1813 'holey dollar' and its enigmatic offspring, the 'dump'.
-
Advertisement
-
The National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia is one big abstract Australian storybook. Using creativity, controversy, humour and self-contradiction, the National Museum dismantles national identity, and in the process provokes visitors to come up with ideas of their own. There are lots of attendants on hand to help you navigate exhibitions on environmental change, indigenous culture, national icons and more, and you can take one-hour guided tours.
Showing 1-11 of 11 results
