Near and Far: Our Nation's Capital
November 2nd 2006 21:47
Our nations capital, once described by Billy Connolly as ‘the little black cloud that follows you everywhere’.
There are many great things about Canberra, I fear are not obvious. Sure it is quite a desolate, eerie kind of place to the city dweller. Even I, a previous local, have seen tumbleweeds at a service station and found myself trembling at the knees, or maybe that was a reaction to the icy cold temperature? Nevertheless, I believe there is much beauty within our nations capital. Who can beat the space? There is so much of it.
And you are guaranteed not to hear your neighbours every intimate movement. Nearly every suburb backs onto a reserve, so not only are you able to bushwalk at a whim, but you will hear possums mating calls waking you in the middle of the night. And you do not have to go on a tour for that kind of experience!
I have to say in the 18 years of living in Canberra, I never came a cross a politician. Perhaps I never mixed in the ‘right’ circles, or maybe even better, they are an urban myth. As far as one’s basic needs are concerned, the air is clean, as is the water. It is almost pure tasting, our very own Mount Franklin. Aside from the vast array of events hosted there, you cannot go past its reputation as our sex capital. There is even a sex bus tour, for the discerning tourist or local.
However, overall, I believe its location is Canberra’s best attribute. Canberra is supremely close to Sydney, the south coast and of course, the snow. Since my departure, Canberra has modernised vastly, to what I once thought was a town pretending to be a city, but I believe it has passed with flying honours. Also, close to Canberra there are historically significant points like Mount Stromlo and Tidbinbilla with its telescopes and lunch stealing emus. And of course Lanyon Homestead in Tharwa. Some might call me biased, but I believe Canberra has as much to offer as any other city in this great world of ours
The Black Clouds of Canberra, taken from Mount Ainslie
There are many great things about Canberra, I fear are not obvious. Sure it is quite a desolate, eerie kind of place to the city dweller. Even I, a previous local, have seen tumbleweeds at a service station and found myself trembling at the knees, or maybe that was a reaction to the icy cold temperature? Nevertheless, I believe there is much beauty within our nations capital. Who can beat the space? There is so much of it.
And you are guaranteed not to hear your neighbours every intimate movement. Nearly every suburb backs onto a reserve, so not only are you able to bushwalk at a whim, but you will hear possums mating calls waking you in the middle of the night. And you do not have to go on a tour for that kind of experience!
I have to say in the 18 years of living in Canberra, I never came a cross a politician. Perhaps I never mixed in the ‘right’ circles, or maybe even better, they are an urban myth. As far as one’s basic needs are concerned, the air is clean, as is the water. It is almost pure tasting, our very own Mount Franklin. Aside from the vast array of events hosted there, you cannot go past its reputation as our sex capital. There is even a sex bus tour, for the discerning tourist or local.
However, overall, I believe its location is Canberra’s best attribute. Canberra is supremely close to Sydney, the south coast and of course, the snow. Since my departure, Canberra has modernised vastly, to what I once thought was a town pretending to be a city, but I believe it has passed with flying honours. Also, close to Canberra there are historically significant points like Mount Stromlo and Tidbinbilla with its telescopes and lunch stealing emus. And of course Lanyon Homestead in Tharwa. Some might call me biased, but I believe Canberra has as much to offer as any other city in this great world of ours
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