These days, I am very happy to call Canberra home. I suppose it helps when you have all your family around you. For those of you who don’t know, Canberra is Australia’s Federal capital city . Unlike many cities around the world, it is not the largest or the most popular from a tourist point of view. I guess it would be a lot like Washington is to the United States. It is the seat of Federal Politics, where people all around Australia send someone who they have elected to represent their interest in parliament. Of course when they fail to do so, Canberra gets at least some of the blame.
Situated in it’s own territory the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Canberra is very often unfairly maligned here in Australia, particularly from those in other states who have never been here. This is usually because of the political aspect, and that many of it’s residents are public servants. However despite the negative perceptions of the uneducated, it should be noted that Canberra is a beautiful city, an easy place to live, work and get around in.
The population is approximately 350,000 and we don’t suffer from the traffic congestion that others cities do. We also have great tourist attractions, like the Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Parliament House, The Museum of Australian Democracy (better known as Old Parliament House, Questacon, and much, much more. We are located less than 300 kms south west of Sydney and less than 700 kms north east of Melbourne. We are two hours away from the south coast, and two hours from the Snowy Mountains.
So if you live overseas and are planning on coming to Australia, make sure you include Canberra on your travel itinerary. And to those of you from Australia who have never been to Canberra, don’t listen to what the cynics have to say, find out for yourself. It’s a fascinating place to visit.
