Canberra And The Outback

Australia's capital city is neither of it's two largest cities, Sydney or Melbourne. Because of rivalry between those two cities, a capital city was specially built. That city is Canberra, and it became the capital of the country in the 1920s. Canberra is an entirely planned city, built exactly halfway between Melbourne and Sydney.

In order to build the capital exactly halfway between Melbourne and Sydney, it was built where a city would not usually be found. Canberra is about 100 km inland, while all of the country's other major cities are on the coast. Unlike any other major Australian city, Canberra has an Aboriginal name because recognizing the original people was part of representing the country.

It is by no means unusual for a country to specially build a capital city, rather than using an existing city. In the Bible, King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel because of it's central location among the country's tribes. Washington D.C. and Ottawa were especially built as capital cities because of central location. Washington was between the north and the south of what was then the U.S. Ottawa was built between English-speaking "Upper Canada" and French-speaking "Lower Canada". We saw in the posting "St. Petersburg And The Romanovs" how Peter the Great had built the city as his capital.

Australian cities have massive stone war memorials. There is a memorial to Kemal Ataturk in Canberra. He was the Ottoman military commander at Gallipoli, in the First World War where quite a few Australians died. This image of the Ataturk Memorial is from Google Street View.

In a very encouraging example as to how enemies can become friends, Ataturk praised the Allied soldiers as well as the Turkish who were buried at Gallipoli, "They are buried in what is now a friendly country and are now our sons as well". It was Ataturk, of course, who was the founder of modern Turkey after the end of the Ottoman Empire. It was certainly his ultimate victory at Gallipoli that promoted him to this position, which brought such a change to the world.

The following scenes begin inside the War Memorial Museum in Canberra. The wide boulevard, aligned like something out of Paris with the Old and New Parliament Houses on the other side of Lake Burley Griffin, is the ANZAC Parade. The often seen acronym "Anzac" means "Australia and New Zealand". Although separate countries they have always been allies, with the exception of sports rivalries. The lake is a decorative feature of Canberra, that was created by an artificial dam. 

These two images of the Anzac Parade are from Google Street View. Remember that Australians drive on the left side of the road.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-35.2806338,149.1493537,2a,75y,108h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s5xnEJ9sTazrticFOr-TUdQ!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D5xnEJ9sTazrticFOr-TUdQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D111.698296%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The following scenes begin between the old and new Parliament Houses, on the opposite side of Lake Burley Griffin from the War Memorial. The first image, from Google Earth, shows the Old Parliament in the foreground and the New Parliament in the background. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@-35.3061558,149.1263384,3a,75y,240.99h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTrmS4mx5iVnuAf5I3xfYtg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DTrmS4mx5iVnuAf5I3xfYtg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D235.80765%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is the new residential area of Dunlop, in Canberra. Canberra is in the Australian Capital Territory, which was set aside so that the capital city of the country is not in any of the states, in the same way that Washington, D.C. is in the District of Columbia, which is not part of any state. The states of Australia are Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and, Western Australia. The first image of Dunlop is from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-35.1931268,149.0240361,3a,75y,269h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1spSNdH9KDhqSsEVz-S0epyw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DpSNdH9KDhqSsEVz-S0epyw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D269.84436%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

There is a connection between the city of Buffalo, NY and Canberra that we rarely hear of. It was actually an American architect who designed Canberra as a capital city. Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra is named for Walter Burley Griffin.

There was once an architectural masterpiece that Buffalo greatly regrets tearing down. It was the Larkin Administration Building, which had been designed by the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. But Wright was away in Japan during most of the time that it was being built. The construction of the building was supervised by a member of his office, Walter Burley Griffin, who would later design the Australian capital city of Canberra. 

Lake Burley Griffin is the decorative artificial lake in Canberra that was named for Walter Burley Griffin. Image from Google Earth.

This was what the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo looked like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larkin_Administration_Building#/media/File:LarkinAdministrationBuilding1906.jpg

This brick wall, on Swan Street in Buffalo, is all that remains of the Larkin Administration Building. Image from Google Street View. 

Australia is a vast country. Very far from what we have seen of Australia so far is the town of Alice Springs. It is in the vast Australian Outback, and is just about in the geographical center of the country. It is about 2,000 km from Canberra.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-23.7050678,133.8706045,3a,75y,85h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sWbcEO-zQ2On6hafJhckXAA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DWbcEO-zQ2On6hafJhckXAA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D85.5%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The best-known site in the Australian Outback is Ayers Rock, which in Aboriginal is known as Uluru. It is the largest single rock in the world. It looks like it might be volcanic in origin, but it isn't. This vast rock formation is made of sandstone. The three images of Ayers Rock are from Google Earth.