Suburb #60 Parkes - part 1

Suburb no. 60 was the big one Parkes, which some have apparently described as Australian's largest theme park for adults. The weather seemed against us and we could have spent weeks doing this suburb where no one actually lives....but after two mega days of adventures we got there in the end. This post covers the first of our two big days out in Parkes!

Parkes is named after Sir Henry Parkes one of the founders of the Australian constitution (though he died five years before Australia became a federation) and a premier of NSW for five terms. I would love to read a biography of this man. From the sounds of it he was a tall, remarkably intelligent man with a commanding personality - although as often the case, it appears to be generally accepted that he was also vain, petty and temperamental, and wrote very bad poetry. He arrived in Australia in 1839 with his wife and only a few shillings, but turned his fortunes around working for NSW Customs, founding the Empire newspaper and finally entering politics in the 1850s

The streets in Parkes are named after monarchs and constitutional references. As there was no suburb sign *sighs*, we had to get creative...apologies for the expression but suburbs without signs make me cranky.... as does 34 degree heat....

Parkes, which essentially includes the Parliamentary Triangle, oddly straddles both sides of Lake Burley Griffin. We decided to start our adventures on the Southside. First stop was the international flag display down by the lake where we played, guess the flag until serious neck pain developed...

Some more energetic Canberrans nearby appeared to be so excited by the flags that they had to run...

At a much more leisurely pace, we wandered up the hill we went towards the flag pole that is even bigger than the one I saw in Dunlop :p

Past the Commonwealth bank money box buildings....

And the tent embassy....

 ...to Old Parliament House, or what is now known as the museum of Australian democracy). OK so I have been here many many times before but I love this building and one day I am determined to decorate my home with furniture from the Senate. Besides we had to help out 'Team Australia' for a bit :p

I would have loved to stay longer at OPH or visit the Archives nearby...but it was time to head towards the National Gallery to see the current James Turrell exhibition. Woo hoo!

So off to the gallery NGA it was - after a quick detour via the gorgeous rose gardens in front of OPH.

After seeing the exhibition and listening to a really interesting talk on Blue Poles, we headed out to wander around the sculpture garden. This is one of my favourite places in Canberra (noting I will be saying that a lot in this post...) but those of you who have seen the Turrell exhibition will understand why this was incredibly bad idea on a very bright sunny day. I think my brain is still trying to recover from the damage I did to it that day! But so glad we caught the mist sculpture in action :)

We then wandered up towards the High Court and the fabulous fountain at the front called the Cascade Waterfall - this was designed by Robert Woodward (architect who also designed the awesome fountain in Kings Cross Sydney and the one outside the Canberra Centre in civic)....

And across to the National Library....at which point the weather started to turn incredibly ugly. Nevertheless, it made for some great photos of the fountains out the font though :)

And before we still managed to sneak in a quick walk through the romantic Senate Rose Gardens...

And a visit to Magna Carta Place which I had never been to....before we had to call it quits for our first big day out in Parkes.

So then with a wave to Chifley and Curtin it was farewell to Parkes...for a little while anyway :p