The National Gallery, despite Blue Poles, deserves at least half a day and the Australian War Memorial, one of the greatest museums of its kind, is beyond intelligent comprehension in less than a day. There's more to Parliament House than politics. The architecture and decorations of the building are superb. We don't let our guests leave the core area without an hour or so in the National Science and Technology Centre nor without a tantalising glimpse of the literary treasures in the National Library. Canberra's shallow valley runs back to an arm of the Great Dividing Range and a forestate of the Snowy Mountains.
Spring is mild and flowery, summer dry, with autumn the quintessence of leafy beauty.
Given my era, there's strong inclination to steer our visitors next to what might be called the inner periphery of Canberra's tourist delights and the most nostalgic of them, the National Film and Sound Archive. The Archive, in the suburb of Acton, is near the Australian National University which is in itself academically distinctive and aesthetically interesting. At the Archive, the old newsreels take you back to the brutality of World War I, the aftermath of Darwin's Cyclone Tracy and the piquant humour of Jack Davey. It's a big city and very shoppable. The range of restaurants and small eating houses is quite extraordinary.