We made a quick trip to Canberra, Australia's capital city, over the Christmas and New Year period. If you like your fix of mid-century modern then Canberra should certainly be on your list of destinations to visit.
Our short holiday mainly centred around the major tourist attractions for the children. This included a visit to Parliament House, The Royal Mint, Black Mountain, the Australian War Memorial and Questacon. We did manage to squeeze in a mid-century house sticky-beak in the suburb of Forrest with the assistance of a self-guided tour thanks to the
Canberra House website.
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| Looking up through the glass ceiling at Parliament House |
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| Looking towards Parliament House from the Australian War Memorial |
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| Telstra Tower on Black Mountain. The view from here was amazing |
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| Pillars of gold in Civic Square |
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| ACT Legislative Assembly Building in Civic Square |
It was a nice gentle family destination and we really enjoyed all the sites. Canberra has an interesting genesis as it is a planned city. It was designed by American Walter Burley Griffin after he won an international competition in 1912 to plan Australia's capital. It is surprisingly easy to get about with a rental car...we only got lost twice which is actually great since I am a dreadful navigator!
Canberra House is a fantastic resource and if we had more time we definitely would have done a more comprehensive tour of Canberra's residential architecture. There is a plethora of fabulous homes to drool over.
Sadly, one of the homes we could visit inside was closed. The Robin Boyd designed
Manning Clark House, which is now a museum/community centre of sorts, is where the late historian Manning Clark penned his famous
A History of Australia. We contented ourselves with an exterior stick-beak only.
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| Manning Clark House 1952 in Forrest |
Here are a few notable mid-century modern homes we saw on our brief tour of Forrest.
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| Sir Roy Grounds designed Forrest Townhouses 1959 |
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| Malcolm Moir designed home 1935 |
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| Robin Boyd designed home 1952/53 |
Hopefully our next stay in Canberra will be a little longer and we will be able to spend more time exploring this gem of a city.
