Saturday, June 6th, Canberra, Australian National Museum
Bob: We had both just showered, dressed, and were trying to figure out the nearest possible restaurant, cafe, or grocery store but were just drawing blanks (i.e., walking at least 3 kilometers to find anything at all) when there was a knock on the front door and our fairy godmother re-appeared. That is, Karen, the nice local lady who had rescued us the previous night, showed up on our doorstep and insisted on taking us under her wing for the weekend. Although she was currently running a real estate firm and busy on the weekends, she nonetheless decided she couldn't let us live out in the boondocks in that hotel so she took us in. We explained the situation to the staff at the Greenleigh and checked out three days early without a problem, thank goodness, and then packed up our bags and set off in Karen's Lexus to her home in a nearby suburb. Despite the fact that like all real estate agents Karen had to work on weekends, she managed to lavish hospitality upon us for the remainder of our stay in Canberra. For my part, I simply enjoyed chatting with her as she had several different careers in her earlier years ranging from systems analysis work on computers in the 1960s to ministry work for the Australian government. Her professional and personal experiences made her insights on both historical and current Australian events quite fascinating. After we dropped our luggage off in Karen's spare bedroom, she fed us breakfast and then drove us in to the Australian National Museum. Our guidebook had suggested that the museum was the best of its kind, so we set aside a whole day to see it. As it turned out, that was not enough! The first thing that struck us when we entered the museum was the fantastic, rather far-out architectural style of the huge building. The arches, gardens, and galleries kind of rambled or twined around a spit of land in one of the lakes in central Canberra. One curious effect of the architecture was to make the building look rather small, and I initially wondered if it had that much content in it, but that impression was totally misleading as the building had extensive, information-packed galleries covering Australia's history and Aboriginal pre-history. |
Monika: When I woke up early in the morning, I kept thinking about how to get to the nearest bus station, and how to get around. I made myself a cup of coffee (instant) showered and before Bob and I could discuss what to do next, Karen, our fairy godmother, came back. She told us in no uncertain terms, that she could not possibly leave us in this place, that she was alone in a big house and that she would come back in 30 minutes to pick us up and we would stay with her. Before we could get out a cogent argument, she was gone. All we could do was pack our belongings and sign out. Karen turned out to be in the real estate business in a Canberra suburb, and she was as kind hearted as she was forceful. She did come back and after we had breakfast at her house, she even took us to the National Museum of Australia, which we wanted to see. Karen lived in a beautiful four bedroom house with two adorable dogs, Bentley, a cocker spaniel, and Button, a toy poodle. Both were delighted to have two more people who would pet them and love them. The National Museum of Austria has the most unique architecture you can imagine. I can't describe it, take a look at our pictures. |
Bob: A temporary exhibit in the first hall was on the "Vaka Moana" or the big sailing ships of the Polynesians that had been used to settle the islands of the Pacific Ocean long before the arrival of Captain Cook and the other white guys in modern history. By the end of two hours immersion in the methods of navigation, ship construction, and settlement used by the ancient Polynesians, I had a much better appreciation of what they had accomplished, which was nothing short of amazing. By that time we had to eat lunch, so that only gave us the afternoon to see the rest of the museum. For some folks that might be enough, but not for me. The ancient history of the Aboriginal tribes concerned, of course, a non-Western culture and trying to absorb the truly different ideas, values, living styles, and viewpoints of that culture was really difficult. The history of Australia from contact with Europeans in the late 1700s was equally daunting but for different reasons. Australia has a very different ecology from what I am used to, so trying to understand the web of relationships among very different plants and animals was challenging. I mean, just trying to really understand a platypus made my head spin. |
Monika: Inside they had a special exhibit on the settling of the Pacific Islands by Polynesian. They were superb sailors and navigators. There was an interesting section on the navigators. They started training at age 5 and had to memorize the names and paths throughout the year of over 170 stars. They also learned about the winds, the swells of the oceans, and the birds. With that information they could tell from 100 miles away that an island was up ahead. It really was an enormous feat to settle not only the islands of Micronesia but in particular Hawaii and New Zealand. We did spent a good hour or more at this exhibit, so before we tackled the rest of the museum we had lunch at the cafeteria, a wide open hall between the special exhibit and the rest of the museum. The rest of the museum was all about Australia: the native and the introduced fauna and flora, the land, the crops, and the people. With pictures and examples of everything. There was also a large section on the Aboriginals and fine examples of their art. |
Bob: A separate section was devoted to water as Australia is a very arid country on the whole and water is very precious. Rainfall makes a critical difference on what can be grown or raised where, and the conservation of water was just as important as it is in the desert southwest of the U.S. Another section was devoted to fire and its effects on the ecology. But the histories of disastrous wildfires and how some people survived them was quite vivid. Again the eucalypt trees play such a key role both because they are drought tolerant and because they shed bark and have oily leaves that ultimately provide tremendous fuel for the wildfires. Karen picked us up again that evening and we had a nice meal while we watched the Australian or BBC news and talked about current events. |
Monika: When the museum closed at 5PM we found a small book on Australian slang (whinge ---> whine, for example) and then called Karen, who picked us up. She had to leave again but had left some steaks for us to fix. So I managed to cook us a nice little meal . We watched BBC news and then some Rugby before heading off for bed. Did you know that Australia has two different Rugby Clubs: the Rugby League which has rules unique to Australia and the Rugby Union which plays Rugby the way it is played in England and the rest of the world. And yes the bumper sticker "Give blood, play Rugby" is correct. I saw one player walking off the field with blood pouring down his face. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Australian Walkabout | Epilog |
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