The Brussels Post, 1974-02-20, Page 3ide ir It
)ne
Id
Brit's
thti
beit
er
the forties; it was sold for $200.,
completely dismantled, each
stone numbered, transported to
2anberra (about 200 miles) and
rebuilt as. All Saints Church:Only
one stone was broken and the
church was opened in 1958. It is
now valued at $375,000.
I found Sidney more interesting
to visit but everyone doesn't
agree with me. People in Sidney
kept telling us that we would like
Canberra better.
Recently, Mary and Wayne
visited both cities on their
holidays ,and disagreed with me
completely. I suppose it is just
one more instance of the "Twelve
Blind Men Who Went to 'See' the
Elephant."
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Sidney to Canberra
ewley and her husband,
pent a month visiting their
er and son-in-law in
Australia this fall.)
By Jean Bewley .
ips I have left you with the
sion that the Opera House
ey's only attraction. The
ons are so many and so
that we did not see nearly
ing in the six days we had
Even the view from, our
indow was ,magnificent. - a
ion of hills covered with
-roofed houses surrounded
greenest trees and a view
harbour beyond.
188. miles of harbour
ic is indescribable.
ok the three-hour Captain
arbour cruise and Were
ed by its beauty. One
point was parkland - it
we taken a great deal of
ig to keep that land away
ic speculators. Beaut iful
and buildings were visible
here. They told us that a
on the waterfront would
m $180,000 up. There was
le sign on one of the most
ful points. It was
ibly accessible but the lots
priced from $80,000 to
0. It had just recently
ubdivided. The average
N.S.W. is $108 a week;
louses certainly couldn't
to the average
arncr!
es seemed to be build in
th roads leading down to
looking like waterfalls.
had private beaches
by ladderS or some had
down to the beach. Our
yen pointed out one beach
vas for topless bathers, too
t day - no bathers! Some"'
s had large nets to keep
out.
c afternoon, we went on
tour which gave us the
sion of extreme opulence -
ums. It was quite
sive! Huge pinkish
ne buildings with much
c carving, beautiful lawns,
shrubs and flowers were
here.
,as hard to relate this
ul city with its beginning.
far cry from that first
ent of convicts sent to an
n land - at least they had
iii scenery to cheer their
lot. As the bus driver .
out the island where the
troublesome were sent;
he first baby was born to a
couple; the gartison
which was built by the
s from sandstone hewn
to cliff to make a road to
rt convicts from the
r, I had a haunted feeling
igined the ,misery of those
)cople, sonic of them
ully convicted, others who
en convicted of petty or
cal crimes.
)1ishments of convicts who
ove their misfortune were
ii. Many of the early
buildings were designed by a
convict named Greenway • His
picture now ,appears on a $10
bill!
With an abundance of clay and
sandstone found right in the city,
it is easy to see why the buildings
are mostly brick or sandstone
with tiled roofs. One large .pink
house was pointed out to us which
was worth $700,000,
That morning, we had been
listening to the weather report on
the radio and heard, "The
weather is warm, water choppy,
with South East winds and
shark-infested so unless you are a
real surf fan, go back to sleep
then go to Work."
In the afternoOn we saw one
surfer on the beach and
shuddered. The beaches are
beautiful - no wonder Australians
are great swimmers. •
Of course a visit to Sidney
would not. be complete without a
visit to the "Pokeys"!N.S.W. is
the only state in Which they are
legal. They are in clubs and you
must be a member of that
particular club or else able to
show a paSsport to prove you are
a visitor from another country.
Don Burke, from Woodstock,
Ontario, who is working in
Sidney, took us to visit one. We
went at night but they re open in
the day time. Apparently people
become addicted to them and will
sp6nd every cent they can get
their hands on in hopes that they
will win. As far as I could see,
people. just won enough to keep
them hoping - the machines were
the winners! There was a' large
bar and music for dancing.
The next morning we went on
the Hawkesbury River tour which
'showed us country surrounding
Sidney. On the way out, we went
through a section whiCh was not
as nice as the Sidney we had seen
the day before but still quite
prosperous. •
A highlight of this tour was the
Koala Bear Farm.l have never
seen an animal that I wanted to
take home with me as badly as I
wanted those bears. They are
night animals, mostly sleeping in
the daytime so quite hard to see
in the wild unless you are in the
woods at dusk. These animals
were kept in an enclosure, the
fence was just like an ordinary
farm fence so I imagine they
could leave if they wanted to but
when they get their favourite
eucalyptus leaves brought right to
them, 'why leave? When we
arrived, they were sleeping in the
crotches of trees so the keeper
had to wake them by offering
them eucalyptus. He told us that
they are not always as sleepy ,as
they look and if molested can be
,quite fierce, using their long
sharp claws and even biting. In
pictures, their noses look like
black buttons but in reality ; they
are hooked.
There were other animals..
native to Australia on this farm
also. Plenty of kangaroo, all
shapes and sizes - some
resembling giant mice as they sat
upright with their long tails
extended in front of them, One
`little' fellow gave• us a
demonstration of getting in and
out of his mother's pouch. Most
of thetn seemed to forget to pull
their hind legs into the pouch and.
there you. would see the mother
sitting with what looked, like six
legs.
The Wallabies have longer fur,
rounded ears and are smaller
than kangaroos. Two of them sat
staring at us never moving - they
looked like an old-fashioned
couple posing for a family
portrait.
There was a cage of .white .
cockatoos (parrots) which may be
taught to talk. One old fellow kept
saying "Want a cookiel,-Want a
cracker" and when Watt said he
didn't have any, he (the parrot)
screamed "Aw shufup . until we
left. Later on the trip, we saw'
flocks of these large- white birds.
They are protected by law and
sometimes cause problems with
farmers' crops.
This tour included a boat trip
'Starting on Cowan's Creek,
which, we -were inforMed, was
over 200 ft. deep. They didn't tell'
us how deep the river was when
we reached it, The scenery was
fantastic, a photographer's dream
(maybe nightmare if he ran out of
film). In places there was no sign
of human habitation or even
influence as we floated along
amid this magnificent. beauty. A
school of jellyfish pumped their
way past us, a mass •of
brownish-yellow blobs all around
our boat. If one brushes against
you, you break out in a rash.
-As we left Sidney on Friday, we
•discovered that we had only seen
the best of Sidney. The ,Hume
Highway took us out through the
poorer district; streets so narrow
that out' bus almost scraped the
signs; old buildings; shacky
sections; flat land with few trees
(it reminded me of the road
just, outside Port Huron on the
way to Flint) - a far cry from the.
Sidney we had seen earlier. These
houses were mostly frame with
corrugated iron roofs, not 'always
painted, giving the whole area a
"down at the heels look". I will
always remember the beautiful
parts of Sidney though.
The countryside on the way to
Canberra reminded us of the
Country around Paisley, Ontario,
although the hills were higher.
and classed as mountains.
Everything was so green - all the
mountains had trees or grass
tight to the top. October is spring
in Australia so perhaps' we saw
the country at its greenest: I had
never seen such an expanse of
greenery and was quite
overwhelmed. Sheep and cattle of
mixed breeds dotted the hills. We
thought it would be a breeze to
farm here - no winter lush
pasture - the cattle and sheep
could look after themselves - just
keep the fences fixed around the
outside of your property: Later as
we talked to farmers, they
informed us that nothing is as
Somebody
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You Don't Need!
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observer,
easy as it looks to the- casuals originally been built as a
mortuary station in Sidney when
Canberra is a beautiful city, I there were no cemeteries in the
designed. by an American, I country and all funerals were
completely planned and situate dq brought to Sidney .by train. It is a
in a valley surrounded by sandstone building, supported by
• mountains ranging from six huge sandstone pillars where the
thousand to two thousand feet, , train could go right through. As
All houses must be built of brick the rest of the country developed
With tiled roofs; shrubs and trees and cemeteries were available in
must be obtained from the the smaller places, it was not
Government nursery; the needed and so was abandoned. In
traditional Australian feric6
around the house is out, and T.V.
antennas 'arc prohibited, There is
no industry, just insurance
buildings, which look like huge
cement boxes. It is so carefully
planned that there are no
surprises as in cities that just
grow.
A man-made lake in the middle
of the city is large enough to
accommodate sailing regattas and
is surrounded by parks. It would
be a lovely place to live although
we found it hard to find our way
around. Civil servants, diplomatic
personnel, government
representatives and insurance
personnel make up the
population.
It' was made the capital in 1926.
Their 'government is much like
ours with representation. by
population in the. House of
Representatives. In the senate,
each state has ten representatives
- this gives sparsely populated
states like little Tasmania a
chance to have equal voice in
veto over all bills hut may not
initiate , money bills.
The War,Memorial Building is
the focal point of the whole city.
We only had a half hour but in
order to do it justice, I would like
to spend a whole day just looking,
then I probably wouldn't have
seen it all.. Illuminated. three-
dimensional scenes of battles,
participated in by the "Aussies"
during the two World,Korean and
Malaysian Wars, lined the walls.
Since they were more involved in
the war with Japan, these scenes
predominated. One room
contained a Lancaster bomber, a
Spitfire, plus other airforce
equipment. The Lancast er was
fully equipped even to the
bombs lined up ready to go.
All Saints Church also had an
interesting background. It had
I. It VS
.LAST
GIFT
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Whether it's a
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THE BRUSSELS POST, FEBRUARY 0, 19711--3
sit
any'
WI hears
• (Continued froth: Page 1) confetences And there was more
dyed from MiS, jno ,- participation in the ptegtaiiis by
llob.bavdson and the distticts. Health and nutrition
Clarke Matheson should have a place in each
ridial
Y
a
aai
nd
Millie McFarlane for meetings' program .01 rid bokes which they had Any woolen wishing to take the cti
ssi ,2'he shoji course "Mote. ideas for
Sectetaty„ Miss Laura sewing . knits" please call the ,a8, A rea u att, interesting letter' leadett. Jim Smith of -Mrs,
mess itw n the president: Jim knight, ch Jul
Noblitt thanking the Happy birthday midS, sting foe
riches for their' support during. Mrs: Janede Vries. ter Past year mid wishing them . the folf tall "A good .ritertiory
sueee8s 1974 she a thy 1: was. It ehild"
citted that attendance was, up recalled many happy interesting ittl 'area COnV6 Arid events.
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