The best thing about Australian public museums is the fact that hey are free entry! That means that you aren't crazily hard pressed to wring out every last drop out of the visit until it becomes miserable for everyone involved... plus, it is one of the things that is for the public good and that is the sort of thing that governments exist for.
So, after a first visit to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, we found ourselves there again during the recent school holidays. The first visit was interrupted by one of the kids feeling a little bit under the weather... and so we ended up cutting that visit a little bit shorter than expected.
Funnily enough, the little one was really quite hesitant to return back to this museum in case she got sick again... little kids have weird ideas!
So, the starting point was the weird preserved embryos of platypuses...
... and the first stop was the area that exhibited relics and stories from the Australian colonial through to the interwar periods. Lots of interesting things to see and read about, and I will make a few annotations for some of the photos.
Cattle grazing was one of the more important industries in post-colonial Australia, and it is still occupies a romantic place in the Australian story with large tracts of land in the outback being devoted to cattle farming.
... and sheep being the another important industry. There is an Australian saying that we "rode on the sheep's back" to prosperity. This is one huge single piece of wool! The sheep look so funnily skinny when they are shorn.
The little still and wrought iron windmills for drawing water were also critical parts of the farming infrastructure in the dry arid areas of Australia.
Until recently, Holden was a mainstay of the Australian industrial landscape... until it was shut down as it could no longer remain competitive in a global economy without huge subsidies. This car was the first model that rolled off the Melbourne production lines... without indicators or seatbelts until they were mandated in the 1960's!
Then onwards to the First Australians exhibition area, where the various indigenous nations of Australia were telling their stories. We were running out of time here, so I'll just leave you with a handful of photos... hopefully, the next time that we visit, we will be starting at this point and I will be able to write in more detail about the various artifacts here!
