Day 43 - National Arboretum

Inside The Village
National Arboretum

Canberra turned of a beautiful late spring day for us. Having spent yesterday with my brother and his family and then the evening with friends Amanda and Kevin, today was spent in the warm air ... the warm, pollen-heavy air, as it turned out.

Sue has been cursing hay fever for the past few days.

We spent the morning walking through the north western suburbs and stopping a coffee in Spence. The conversations ranged over our joint experiences in the UK and Ireland in 2012, our families, politics, social change ... just as an artist might daub the sort of brush strokes one paints in washing the background of a new creation, so it is with a developing friendship.

Kevin took us to the National Arboretum for lunch.

What a wonderful place.

Located at the western edge of the city, it's 250 hectares are spread across several hillsides that open onto a new vista of the capital. The site of a pine forest that was mostly burnt and destroyed in the cataclysmic bush fires of the first few years of the Naughties, the land has already been planted with 48 000 trees. The earthworks done to sculpt the central valley which ranges down from "The Village", created steps and paths to manage the potential erosion and fill the dam which provides water. They are the largest earthworks completed in Australia since the 2000 Olympics.

Bonsai and Penjing Centre

A national competition to design the arboretum around the theme of "100 years, 100 forests", was won by Taylor Cullity Lethlean Landscape Architects and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects. "The Village" - the dome shaped building which sits at the apex of the arboretum - nestles into the surrounding hills and provides visitors with a view which is spectacular and previously unavailable of Canberra. Walter Burley Griffin had envisioned the area to be farm land to provide a level of self-sufficiency for the city in his original planning, so it is fitting it is such a superb green space now.

The aim is to cultivate endangered species from around the world that will adapt to Canberra's boom and bust diversity of climate and in the process, learn more about the plants. In this, the staff - many of them volunteers - have exceeded their brief, establishing 104 species. Follow the link for more information ... National Arboretum Fact Sheet 

We didn't have enough time to explore other aspects of the place. On a nearby rise, the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion is a function centre with best views of the capital and between sits an open air, grassed amphitheatre where live music may be absorbed in late afternoons and under the stars. Above The Village, Dairy Farmers Hill is the highest point of the arboretum, with its few undaunted trees and Nest III, a sculpture of a large eagle sitting on its nest. It looks across the central valley to the words Wide Brown Land, sculptured onto the landscape from Dorethea McKellar's icon poem, "My Country", which kids of my generation could recite, back in the day. They have been formed to replicate her handwriting style for an even greater homage.

A children play area is nearby, with its climbing structures incorporating huge acorns to be climbed through and over and in and around.

Tucked in beside The Village is the Bonsai and Penjing Collection - one term Japanese, the other Chinese but both for the same tiny, perfect trees. The walkways that wind through here are white pebble and grey slate. As we visited, a volunteer expert was trimming an exhibit with nail clippers and all the care and love with which a mother might brush a daughters hair.

Inside The Village is a large open space, cool on a hot day and warm in the winter. It houses a restaurant, a gift shop and a cafe, all with friendly, go out of their way staff and reasonable prices. The food we ordered was satisfying and the coffees were rich. Its incredible outlook is staggering for visitors, but if I was a resident, I would find myself a coffee table by the window for that mid morning coffee and then stay, perhaps with a book or a pen or just empty thoughts, until it was time for a late afternoon red.

So new, yet already so special and so important, this was all possible because of people with vision in both the ACT government and the then Federal government, who poured in millions to establish the arboretum as "seed grants" - no pun deliberately intended - and have subsequently made the venture fund itself. There is no cost to enter, to wander about or to be staggered by the beauty and as the forests grow, that can only be enhanced. Our volunteer guide, Sue, who gave us the history and the future of the arboretum, laced with colour and passion, which just added to what was a fabulous experience.

Day 42 - On The Art Trail

Like all travellers, I have my share of hassles with Internet connections.

Wi-Fi is a useful connection in public places that offer it, but it seems to work better in public libraries and small cafes. Services offered in larger corporate chains are often under powered and serve to frustrate. It's the main reason I choose to extend my date entitlement on my iPhone and use it as my modem.

That all works well until something goes wrong with the phone.

I spent two hours trying to post the last entry here before switching phones - Sue's is my back up - and again this morning, things have not gone well between the phone and I until suddenly, all is forgiven and for no reason I can fathom, everything works again. Little wonder some people become frustrated with technology.

Yesterday was a Canberra day. In the morning and early afternoon, my brother Art, having taken the day off, took us to the National Gallery to see an Arthur Boyd Exhibition and then to the National Portrait Gallery. Along with his wife Ann, we spent a pleasant few hours doing what I do best ... look at art. The Boyd Exhibition - The Agony and The Ecstacy - was spectacular, with a vast array of his work which was representative of his development as an artist. The enormous influence of his father, Merrik, was obvious, as was the influence he had on other Australian painters, including my favourite, the l'enfant terrible, Brett Whiteley. Across his life, he experimented with style but often with recurring themes.

Jack Charles by Rod McNicol
National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery has always been a favourite Canberra haunt of mine, right back to days of it being housed in the old parliament house. Some of the newer acquisitions were impressive. I was particularly taken with a painting by Luke Cornish, a hand cut stencil in acetate with acrylic paint applied by aerosol. The subject, an older Bob Hawke, is caught in a pensive, uncertain pose, opposite to his public life persona of ebullient over confidence. Rod McNicol's inkjet print of the actor and aboriginal activist Jack Charles was stunning. A small but poignant collection of Gough Whitlam prints, photographs and sketches has been mounted to celebrate the life of what our current Prime Minister called a man who WASN'T one of our best Prime Ministers. Arrogance repays arrogance I guess from a man who called John Kerr a hero!


We had coffee by Lake Burley Griffin before retiring for the afternoon. Being able to do these things family always makes them more special.

The evening was spent with friends we met in the UK in 2012, Amanda and Kevin and who we have been trying to reconnect with ever since. A chain of events have stood n the way until now and it was pleasant evening catching up and filling in our back stories for each other. Whilst it was a reminder of the fun we haf with them when our acquaintance was new, these things need to evolve and there was the feeling that may have been happening last night.

Family Get Together

Canberra - (Monaro Highway) 114 kms
23/9/1995
On the road by 8:30 am: destination Canberra.

The road north, at that hour of the morning, took us through some low cloud and mist as the hills rolled by us. In places, tree plantations followed the contours of the land, but the main land use appeared to be farming.

Our main activity for the day was to be a family picnic on Black Mountain Peninsula. It was a rare occasion when my brother and sisters gathered in the one spot and given our busy lives and disparate geographical locations, it was one to be savoured. Sue and Lindsay were visiting Canberra for the weekend and had Kelly and Mark with them for the trip. With Megan living in Canberra, this left only Tim not present from me Blaxland wing of the extended family. Megan was accompanied by her male friend, Pin. We were immediately impressed by the fact he could play a didgeridoo! Jenny and Doug drove up from Cooma, giving us an hour's head start and Kirsten, Andrew, Campbell and Jossey accompanied them. Art and Minta represented the Canberra branch of the family, as Anne was in Sydney on other business.

It was a windy day, but a reasonable temperature made the wind bearable and we spent three or four
hours talking, eating and walking on the narrow finger of land jutting out into into Lake Burley Griffin from the southern base of Black Mountain.

News of Gog and Pa came by the way of letters from them which had been circulating among the family. Being on the road, we had missed this contact, but had the advantage of their company in the early stages Our time passed quickly and was eventually curtailed by rain which had threatened from the start. The Cooma connection bid us farewell and headed south to their homes and organisation for the evening was put in place for those remaining.

A change of venue - the Evatt home of Art and Anne - saw the Blaxlands joining us for the evening meal and a night of family fun. After dinner, we played cards and then later in the evening, a new game about relationships called Compatibility. A game played in teams of two, the pairings proved to be interesting. Sue ("new Sue") and I stayed together as a couple, but Sue and Lindsay were split up between Art and Kelly, respectively and tills led to some hilarious moments.

The day closed near midnight, having been warm in emotion if not weather.

24/9/1995
Our day was spent in slow, restful and relaxing circumstances, with the only active moments being a walk through the green belt adjacent to Art & Anne's residence. Anne returned during the afternoon and the remainder of the day was spent up-dating each other oh the events which were important in our lives.