Whew!!

Wow, what a list. It looks as though two weeks would be better than one, but be assured that everyone will have a list of more things to do on their next trip to Canberra.

Free Attractions

The tourist info people at Canberra very nicely sent me a package of stuff when I called them a few weeks ago. Included in that was a page of attractions in Canberra that are free and anyone who will be there for longer than the few days of the trip may find it interesting. It includes -

All Saints Church
Australian of the Year Walk
Australian War Memorial
Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex
Canberra Museum and Gallery
Captain Cook Memorial jet
Changi Chapel
Church of St John the Baptist
Commonwealth Place
Free Serbian Orthodox Church
Geoscience australia
Gold Creek Village
Government House Lookout
High Court of Australia
Indonesian Embassy and Cultural Centre
Memorials of Anzac Pde
Mount Ainslie Lookout
Mount Pleasant Lookout
Namadgi National Park
National Carillon
National Archives of Australia
National Capital Exhibition
National Film and Sound Archive
National Gallery of Australia
National Library of Australia
National Museum of Australia
Old Bus Depot Markets
Parliament House
Reconciliation Place
Red Hill Lookout
Royal Australian Mint
Stromlo Forest Park
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

Schedules are a pain!

I wish I hadn't put that bit in the last e-mail about the schedule possibly changing. If I hadn't I might not have to start re-arranging it already.

Anyway some new info I only got a couple of days ago is that Tuesday 4/11/2008 is as of this year a public holiday in Melbourne. As to how secret this is not even the locals know. I was arranging for us to visit the NLA in the morning and talking to Catherine at the NLA when she tried to book the time in and couldn't. She had to go away to find out that this is now Family and Community Day in the ACT. Since it is set up for the first tuesday in November rather than the date 4/11 they really should have called it booze and bet day since that is what most of them will be doing.

So the tour of the NLA is now set for Wednesday 5/11 in the morning and below is the schedule they have given me.

9.15 - 10.00 General introduction to library operations
10.00 - 10.10 Tour main reading room, travel to stacks via tube room (Catherine)
10.10 - 10.15 Stacks
10.15 - 10.25 Inter-library loan
10.30 - 10.45 Preservation 10.45 - 11.15 Librarian technicians presentation.

Wednesday afternoon will be the NGA just a couple of hundred meters up the road.

Due to the public holiday on 4/11 the general part of all the venues would still be open on that day but the library staff will generally will not be there so no tours on offer. A couple of options we have is to either just take a general gander through

• the New Parliament House and NFSA,
• visit War Memorial in morning (research room will be closed) and shop or whatever in the afternoon,
• or skip New Parliament House and NFSA altogether and look at some of the other attractions around Canberra on the Tuesday and War Memorial on Thursday as per original plan. Questacon is not just for kids and Cockington green or the Deep Space Communication complex are also fun, whilst if you really want to go wild there is always the zoo.

If no one puts their 2 cents in I will just go with what I think would be the most fun.

Online

Great, we are online and can get information happening now! Welcome to every one who has expressed interest in joining the Canberra Ramble for Tassie Lib Techs, being organised by Trina.
There has been talk about getting together to discuss the possibility of sharing transport, accomodation etc, so what is the feeling out there?
This can be a facility for bringing the Hobart people together as well as the North West people.
I look forward to the discussion.
Cheers, Glenyce

Why a blog?

I figured we needed a forum to disperse information and discuss possibilities for our trip in November.

Firstly please remember that this is Melbourne cup week and transport from Tassie to Melbourne may be problematic. I am not sure but I believe that there is no direct flights from Tassie to Canberra and I can see lots of people heading over for the cup in melbourne. I have not looked at this too closely myself as I am heading to Canberra earlier by car.