Canberra - "the Cumbernauld of the southern hemisphere?"

Canberra was a bit of a fill in to my itinerary,dealing with the gap between the Melbourne and Sydney tests. I could have spent a few days more in Sydney but thought I would check out somewhere not often on a non Australians holiday plans.

It's a 20th century city, so i was not sure if it would similarities to Milton Keynes or Cumbernauld. It does have wide boulevards, plenty of concrete and a a variation on a grid style arrangement. There are lots of open spaces and as national capital plenty of government buildings, museums and memorials. It has a bit of a Washington feel to it with a government/ museums area.

I was staying close to the Australian War Memorial/Museum and found myself going there a couple of times to see the various areas. It's very respectfully done and a fitting tribute to those that fell primarily during WW1, WW2 and subsequent conflicts such as Korea and Vietnam. 

Most of the museums were open and I spent some time in the National Portait Gallery and the Old Parliament House where you can see previous chambers used and various exhibitions on political/society issues. This included an exhibition of the best political cartoons from 2025 which seemed to suggest that this "art form" is probably more vibrant than currently in UK. Not surprisingly there were a lot of coverage of global issues but the domestic issues highlighted were uncannily similar to those in UK.

Overall I could probably have spent a bit longer here - which is a good sign that its worth a visit.

Travel to Sydney is by train - well actually one train and one rail replacement coach - something also uncannily simialr to UK.