Mar 4, 5, 6 Goulburn Canberra

Mar 4 Goulburn
Goulburn is a small town of 24,000, but is historically significant. It was the first inland town established. It was the original terminus of the railroad from Sydney and is the merino capital of Australia. A short walking tour highlighted the architecture of various buildings in town. We stopped in the Cathedral Church of St Peter & Paul and the Cathedral of St Saviour. At the latter, the guide was enthusiastic about her recent trip to the US and our national parks. It was a charming town and had a busy downtown.
Now we're in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory.
Last night Sam made some tuna salad, for our quick lunches. We had gotten some cans of tuna from the couple from Calgary. Surprise! it was tuna with tomato and onion. It made a pretty good salad.

Mar 5 Canberra
First, Parliament House, in the Capital Centre of Canberra. We had a tour of the building and a wonderful introduction to Austrialian government. Compared to what we have heard of US politics lately, the Aussie way sounds extremely civilized.
The building itself is underground and you can go on the roof and walk on the grass up there. That symbolizes that the government is under the people, not above. Another interesting feature was the Members Hall, between the 2 chambers. It contains a small fountain, the noise of which assures that conversations between legislators are private. The Great Hall contains the 2nd largest tapestry in the world, a rendering of the painting of eucalyptus trees.
From there we walked to the National Library and their Treasure Room. It displayed various items from their collection; the diaries of Captain Cook, letters from Captain Bligh, a Coverdale Bible (first complete English translation), a letter from Louis Pasteur, the original music and words for 'Waltzing Matilda', world's smallest atlas, plus a letter from Charles Dickens to his sons, who emmigrated to Australia.
It was another walk to the National Gallery of Art. We took a tour of their Aboriginal collection and learned so much about the art and the symbolism of the designs. The most surprising was that since the Aboriginals are painting their land, they paint on the ground, not on vertical surfaces. We saw one painting displayed that way. It was of sand dunes and we could really see the hills and valleys, it was almost like 3D.
To get to The Australian War Memorial we hiked around part of Lake Burley Griffin and walked up the Anzac Parade. It was too late to see very much of the museum, but we were able to watch the closing ceremony. A bagpiper came out of the Hall of Memory and played a Scottish lament. It was quite moving.

Mar 6 Canberra
Today we went to the National Museum of Australia. It's a new museum, just 10 years old. It tells the Australian story thematically. The Land area told of the aboriginal land uses, then farming and raising sheep. There was a giant windmill once stood 100 feet tall from a station (ranch) in the outback as well as equipment used by gold miners. There was the prototype of the first Holden, an Australian made car. This one was designed by Aussies and made in Detroit in 1947 by GM hen shipped to Sydney and driven at night to Melbourne, so no one would see the design. Another exhibit told of an Englishman, who had never been to Australia, who was convinced that because there were so many rivers, there should be a great inland sea. So, Charles Strut, was sent into the outback with a whaling ship, which he and his men took up rivers as far as they could, then carried into the desert. When he returned to Sydney, he had traveled over 3000 miles with it.
We took the bus back to the Australian War Memorial. We had a lovely tour with an older gentleman who was very knowledgeable about the museum and had traveled extensively to battlefields. The Memorial museum covers all conflicts that Australians have fought in, but primarily Gallipoli, WWI and WWII. Gallipolli is in Turkey and that is where the Australia New Zealand Army Command (ANZAC) made their reputation for bravery and where Anzac cookies come from. It is an extremely well designed museum with dioramas, artifacts, airplanes from all eras and light and sound shows.
There were multitudes of school children there both times we went. We found out that, by law, the government pays for accommodations for school children to come to Canberra to visit the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House.
The closing ceremony was an honor guard and a bugler playing 'Last Post' (their version of Taps)

We've been in several campgrounds now and there are some differences with those in the US. The sites are generally small with electric hookup and a place to drain grey water. Australian rvs don't have holding tanks for black waste, they have cassettes that have to be removed and emptied in a dump site. Campgrounds have those. Many campers are in vans without facilities, so the showers and toilets buildings have been fairly large and very clean. Some of the campgrounds had laundries, but the campers mainly use the washers and then hang clothes on campground provided clothes lines. When the sun is out, things can dry very quickly.
The rvs themselves aren't usually as big as those we see in the States. Lots of people use vans or small trailers. We've seen some units suited to the bush, trucks that have tent like structures that fold into the back or trailers that fold out into tent like structures.
At Canberra we met Colleen & Mike who were in the process of selling their house and going on the road with a truck and tent trailer. We also met Sandy and Alan who were from Perth and had been on the road for 10 months. They had traveled a bush track across the country in a truck set up for the bush. It sat high off the ground with a tent thing on the back and had a huge antenna for a ham radio in case they had trouble in the outback.