museums | Time to ACT

The end of Stuart’s annual leave, back in March, saw another visit to the Australian National War Memorial in Canberra. The weather, well it was wet. There was one of these sudden storms. They are the sort of storm that when you arrive in Canberra you question the size of the storm drains (big enough to drive through/in) and then you get one of these storms and you no longer question their need… We were inside the Old Parliament building when it started. You should be able to see the National War Memorial/Museum and a mountain behind it. We stayed put until it eased a touch.

From the Old Parliament looking towards the National War Museum

This is what we were able to see once we got to the Australian National War Museum… Looking back at the Old Parliament Building.

A few shots from inside….

The First World War and the Western Front. Some of the displays.

The “Digger’s Dress”.

The uniform of Matron Wilson along with her medals.

The Autumn has also seen a visit to Goulburn Waterworks Museum, somewhere where I think Patrick would love even though getting around it is not as easy as it could be (though on the whole you don’t need to climb down into the pit…)

We took a slightly different route from normal to Goulburn, going via the equivalent of A roads rather than the dual carriageway. Along the way we were treated to some really nice Autumn colours though I’m not sure how well they came out in the pictures, sadly.

But first we stopped off in the town for a coffee. Stuart was needing one. This is Stuart’s “oh hell she’s at it again” pose! Don’t ask. I have no idea and neither will he!

Stuart was able to have a muffin and whilst the café did soya lattes they didn’t do anything without dairy in it in the way of things to eat. I got the standard “we have gluten free” line and nearly let rip that yet again, dairy and gluten have nothing in common. Stuart intervened. I think he finds it as annoying as I do, but people are so uneducated when it comes to things like this.

🙁 nothing but coffee for me and tbh, I didn’t even finish my latte. It was awful.

The shop reminded us both of Secrett’s back in Milford! And they had a reduced section where I was able to pick up some local olives for $4. They also did the local olive oil as well.

And as with Secrett’s, the prices were on the high side of life. One thing I did see that I have not seen before though was Allspice berries. I have only ever come across Allspice in ground form before.

The view from the car park at Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum

It has a rather familiar style to the building

The Appleby Beam Engine. Once a month, it is fired up for the public.

Information board 1 (The Appleby Beam Engine)

It had been fired up the day before (we went on a Monday) and was in the process of being cleaned which was great because we got to talk to one of the volunteers whilst it was really quiet.

You are looking at the ceiling here. I was intrigued by the detail in the ceiling.

There is some amazing detail to be seen in even the ceiling! True Victorian attention to detail!

The original boilers which are no longer safe to use.

These are the original horizontal boilers. They are sadly no longer safe to use, and have been replaced with a vertical boiler.

The boiler that is safe to use (a vertical boiler)

Not part of the pumping station, but on display (and functional) is the Hicks Hargreaves Horizontal Mill Engine.

Information board 2 (Hick Hargreaves Horizontal Mill Engine)

The Original Telephone used here at the waterworks.

I’ve done the information boards as a gallery so that they don’t take up a huge amount of space. If you want to read them, please click on them (or touch them) and they should open up into a larger view.

Information board 3 (Ingliss & Specner improved Corliss Vavle Gear)

Information board 4 (Early Inglis and Spencer Valve Gear Operation)

Information board 5 (Cyclinder Cross Section showing Corliss Valves)

Information board 6 (The Invention of the Porter Governor)

Information board 7 (The International Inventions Exhibition, London 1885)

Information board 8 (The King’s National Roll Scheme)

Information board (Hand Operated Lift Pump)

Part of the original water main from Goulburn. The hole was caused by a blow out.

Information board (Components of Water Mains)

Information board (A Chronology of Goulburn 1828-1896) 1/3

Information board (A Chronology of Goulburn 1828-1896) 2/3

Information board (A Chronology of Goulburn 1828-1896) 3/3

It was an exhausting day out, but very enjoyable and took us to a town that we hadn’t been to before. Goulburn is also the centre of the local woollen industry here, and happens to have a railway museum so we are likely to return there.

So the final update of Stuart’s holiday.

The weekend was spent doing repairs and catching up on maintenance around the garden. Stuart finally climbed back onto the roof and measured the chimney so we were able to make a decision about what we needed to order in order to get the slow combustion stove up and running. We ended up with more than hoped for but the lady at the counter confirmed that we could return special order items, so it was better to play safe and order too much and return it than be a piece short… We ended up with a complete straight flue kit, 2m of flexi flue and 2 straight to flexi adaptors (one of which was returned!) Luckily when the parts arrived, the 2m of flexi flue was a single 2m piece which was what we needed to make life much easier. Ideally there would have

existed a flexi flue kit complete with adaptors, chimney plate, chimney cowl and downdraft preventer, but that would really have made life way too easy wouldn’t it!

So In addition to that, the wood was moved and Stuart raided the barn and the workshop to riaise the level that the wood was stacked at because when it rains, the water runs through the car port and certain areas flood. These are areas that were not used and hence became really good places to stack wood… and this year something had to be done about the flooding in the car port. So a small trench has been dug, and the wood raised up above the flooding point. Hopefully with that, the various alternative routes for the water to run (from down the hill and the track) and the trench, the wood will be kept out of the water this year!

Dawn on Sunday, gave a little mist hanging in the valley and a sure sign that Autumn is starting to take its hold.

Monday saw the car in the garage for rhubarb bars to be fitted… OK you just have to have read Bill Bryson and a certain book on a tour of Australia to understand but we had taken the decision that we needed Roo Bars and extra lighting to be fitted to the car and today was the day that happened. So Stuart was going into Queanbeyan by himself whilst I continued the treatment of Fred’s eye and cleaned out the quarantine zone where the other chicks and hens were still from the 24th Feb when a friend had given me 13 in exchange for some bike maintenance (and new tyres) that I had done on her rather underused mountain bike.

The car before the roo bar bars were fitted

Stuart and, well do I need to say anything more?

His pride and joy… Rhubarb Bars
But it also seems that no-one has told the ‘roos that this means they are not permitted to run into the side of the car… uh ha, yep within a week.

Stuart had a great time wandering around Queanbeyan and picking up some free maps from the tourist information office who basically told him there was nothing to see or do in Queanbeyan and apparently they are correct! But he did establish that the river that runs through Queanbeyan has Platypuses in it! That came as a surprise to both of us!

The Bridge across the Molonglo River in Queanbeyan

Tuesday was to see the last day of Stuart’s annual leave. We had discussed it and knew that his work were needing someone in the event that someone else was too ill to do the work and given that the weather forecast (which is generally correct in these parts) was for it to rain for much of the second week of his leave, we decided that if they rang and asked him to come in and work, that he would. And so when the phone call came on the Tuesday, the Old Parliament was to be our last museum visit of his holiday.

On arrival we decided on the spur of the moment, to take a guided tour run by volunteers. Whilst they can be a bit of a whirlwind tour, this one wasn’t. They are also good for giving you an overview of large museums and great for picking up extra information. They are however, totally useless in letting you read the noticeboards… but that wasn’t what we wanted from it, and a guided tour seemed like a really good idea. And so we were able to join one that had just started.

As with all volunteer’s the guy was a bit of a character and ran his guided tours with a theme.

A painting in the Prime Minister’s Office

We were to start off in the Prime Minister’s Office which is not the original one because the building was expanded and expanded until it was no longer possible to build onto it anymore and a new parliament building was built. The original building was built to house 300 people. By the time they moved to the New Parliament building, there were more than 3,000 people in the building and there are now something like 5,000 in the new building!

A backbenchers room. This one actually has a window so would have been someone quite senior

The different layers of paint striped back

Some of the different woods used in the Parliament’s furnishings and furniture (part 1)

Some of the different woods used in the Parliament’s furnishings and furniture (part 2)

The hand made wooden tools used to build the parliament building.

Err, perhaps we can see some more… (There should be a mountain over there.)

After a break, and lunch (and nothing to do with the rain stopping…), we headed off to our favourite restaurant for lunch…. and then on to another museum… it was after all the end of Stuart’s annual leave and he wanted to make the most of it… And so we headed off into the Australian War Memorial to continue with our history update from an Australian point of view.