Old Parliament House and Questacon

Today was our last day in Canberra, and we made the most of it! In the morning, Jen and I headed to Old Parliament House to check it out. We knew from our tour books that this building was used as the Federal Parliament from the mid-1920's to 1988, when the current Parliament House was opened, but that was about all. Then we saw a really funny TV commercial, advertising some of the exhibits going on at Old Parliament House, and figured we should give it a look-see. It was time well spent!

This was the first Canberra attraction that cost us money - a whopping $2 entrance fee (although Jen got in for half price because she's a registered teacher). In the main hall they were just about to start a 30-minute, 2-man play about the Great Depression in Australia, as told from the points of view of the Prime Minister of the time and a swagman (homeless vagrant). It was pretty interesting - the two men used a lot of songs in their play, and they made the audience sing along too! At one point, the swagman was telling us about how he earned his keep by telling stories and doing tricks, and called up a member of the audience to help him with a trick onstage. Poor Jen - she was sitting in exactly the right (wrong?) seat! She had to hold a match stick in her mouth while he pretended to cut it with a knife!

We also went on a guided tour of Old Parliament House, and let me tell you, our tour guide here was MUCH better than the one we had in the current Parliament House! We saw the old House of Representatives and the old Senate, as well as the Prime Minister's office and the press gallery. In essence the Old Parliament House is a great museum for learning all about Australian political history. They had some great displays. We sat in a replica of the Speaker's Chair, dressed up in official robes. We posed with a replica of the Speaker's Mace in the old House of Representatives. In another kids' playspace, there were costumes to try on, representing various important historical events. Jen dressed up as a Vietnam war protester, I tried on a general's uniform. Jen tried on a replica of an outfit that Queen Elizabeth wore when she opened Parliament, I believe from the 1950's. We both dressed up and posed together as the Duke and Duchess of York. Boy were we glad there were no KIDS in the kids area - we were having way too much fun to share.

Once we'd had enough of Australian politics, it was time to head to the last stop on our list - Questacon. This is Canberra's equivalent of the Ontario Science Centre. It's not nearly as big as the OSC, but it had some GREAT exhibits that kept us occupied right up until closing time. There was a whole section about circus science, where we got to ride a roller coaster simulator, program our own rotating ride for maximum scare value, watch braver kids than us try out free-fall on the vertical slide, and check ourselves out in funhouse mirrors. In the Earth gallery we watched caged lightning, made earthquakes and tsunamis, learned about lava tubes and much more. The "Frequency" gallery was awesome, with all sorts of fun displays about the physics of light and sound - many of which could have come straight out of my grade 8 science curriculum, and others which were completely new to me.

By far the coolest gallery at Questicon was the one on Spy Science. Upon entering the gallery we got given a spy booklet of suspects in a high profile robbery. Then we had to wander through the exhibit, gathering clues about who might have stolen the supercomputer "Crown". Too much fun! There were microdots to find, telephone conversations to tap, a whole room full of coded messages to solve, and so much more. Jen tried unsuccessfully to put her "Mission Impossible" skills to work in the laser-secured room, but couldn't find the way through. I had to have a random little kid show me how to use some of the decoders, 'cause I couldn't figure them out myself. Before we knew it, it was 5pm (AGAIN!) and we had to leave! That, of course, was when we found a gallery which was very much like the beloved Arcade at the OSC - and we didn't have time to explore it at all! Wah!

So yeah, all in all, this trip to Canberra has been great. Every museum or gallery we visited, we could have easily spent more time at. I think this is kinda funny - some of our Aussie friends from Melbourne kept teasing us when we told them we were going to Canberra for a whole week... they were convinced we wouldn't find enough to do to keep ourselves occupied. I am glad to have proved them wrong.

Tomorrow we will be up at 6am so we can catch our bus/train combination back to Melbourne. I will post all the pictures from this trip as soon as I can - believe me, there are some that I can't wait to share with everyone!