Holiday - Canberra - War Memorial

WARNING - This post is educational.

On Sunday morning (Nov1), we started the long 6hr drive to Canberra along the Hume Highway. I was surprised at how good the road was, dual lanes all the way and a big divider in the middle. There weren't many trucks either. The kids had their movies all picked out, after alot of fighting of whose movie would be put on first and we settled in for the drive.

We stopped at a place called Holbrook for a rest. It was so hot (33deg) and the town had a whopping big submarine in the middle so it looked as good a place as any for a loo break.

We decided to spend only one day in Canberra because basically well, there's nothing there, and it's quite boring but because it's our capital city, it at least deserves a visit once in your lifetime!

The highlight is definitely the war memorial. I love anything on war history. I find it fascinating, the politics behind how they start off with something seemingly small and then snowball bit by bit into such big catastrophes. I don't like to dwell too much on the human side of things, because that is so heart breaking but looking at the men who called the shots behind these wars is quite interesting and stats /facts, things like that, the logistics is quite mind boggling.

Anyway even if you are not into all that, you would be deeply touched and in awe at this museum/memorial.


Victoria Cross recipients, the highest honour a soldier can receive.


The airforce section was amazing! They had a HUGE screen with surround sound that depicted an air fight and showed real footage of some of the dog fights in the sky. It opened up a whole new awareness of the bravery of these men. The fights looked almost majestic and the planes seemed to dance around each other as they fired away. It was awesome!



I liked this. I never knew Deloraine had its own ship. :)

This was some gun thing but the funny thing is the next pic with Oliver putting his face right into it. Not a good look during war-time! (sorry about the blur)


My Pop served on the HMAS Napier in WWII so I just had to get a photo of this.


The Roll of Honour, with the names of those killed in wars. The red poppies were beautiful.


I think this was like a Remembrance/Reflection Pond.


This was where Simon's Pop served. (Harry Triffitt)

Looking down the avenue from the war memorial to Parliament House.


The famous Simpson and his donkey.

This was a representation of the role that sea merchants played in delivering ammunition and food supplies and rescuing our sailors in the ocean. How do I know this? It said so on the plaque. :)

A whopping big gun.


There was so much more there, that I couldn't take photos of because I was either too enthralled by what our guide was talking about or I couldn't quite get the lighting right for the shots (must read that camera instruction manual!!).


Inside the memorial you can also access copies of original war achives via a computer and they print out the scanned details for you. They had yet to get all the details done for Pop Triffitt but my Pop had the scanned original copy of his service. I was so excited to read the actual handwritten record of service.


You need at least 3 hrs to get through it all as it covers all the wars in our world history and has the most amazing artefacts of each war, including real uniforms with bullet holes, boots they wore, medical equipment and more.



The pamphlet you get as you enter sums it up beautifully.............

Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made.

Oh and entry is FREE!!