War Memorial - Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (A.C.T.)

Last but not least we visited the capital of Australia, Canberra in Australian Capital Territory. A beautiful city, we started off by visiting the War Memorial. Exceptionally laid out with its many sculptures and dioramas. For us, to really learn about a country you need to dive into their history, and what better way to learn about a nation then to see the sacrifices that its people made to build that nation.

We caught a wonderful guided tour, which gave us an overview of the history of Australia in wartimes. In particular it was very interesting to see what Australia did during WWI and WWII, to learn about the different countries that they fought in, and even the fact that the Japanese attacked both Sydney and Darwin during WWII.

We checked out the Canberra Centre which is a 3 level, multi building shopping centre and went to lunch before getting back into the car for the next nine hours back to Moe.

War Memorial

Eternal Flame.

Ceiling of the unknown solider's grave.

Lone Pine diorama.

They have this wonderful interactive area where kids (and big kids) can interact with actual war artifacts.

This is an actual boat that landed on the beach. In 1915 the Aussies and Kiwis landed at Gallipoli, Turkey during WWI. The battle was a huge miscalculation for the allies and resulted in heavy casulties. To this day, ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day is commemorated in Australia and New Zealand, the battle often considered to mark the birth of the national consciousness of each nation, replacing their formerly collective identity under the British Empire.

A view of the Australian Parliament building. The large trees are planted in memory of the Aussie troops while the bushes down the middle are for the New Zealand troops lost in the war.