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TAM Australia

To all overseas attendees. Sydney is a great place to visit. Think about staying another week before or after TAM and enjoy the sights. There are some good art galleries, museums and other places of interest. I have stayed there a week and walked to most places. The only time we caught public transport was to go to the zoo.

You can also spend another week in Melbourne (though expect to use the trams and trains) or a few days in Canberra. The trams in Melbourne are one of the few places in the world where they are mostly used to transport workers, rather than tourists, so peak hours they are full.
 
Canberra - the Australian capital of politics and porn. Melbourne's where it's at! If anyone is keen on a post TAM-OZ trip that has a little more class and sophistication, I can help you out. ;)
 
Canberra is a natural stopping-off point between Sydney and Melbourne (after all, that's why it was built here), and takes only a couple of days.
 
Chris H said:
Canberra - the Australian capital of politics and porn. Melbourne's where it's at! If anyone is keen on a post TAM-OZ trip that has a little more class and sophistication, I can help you out. ;)
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Yep, Canberra. Completely classless and unsophisticated. There's nothing classy or sophisticated at the National Gallery, the Australian War Memorial, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library or the National Museum, no. They're all very lowbrow and pandering to the basest of tastes.
 
politas said:
Yep, Canberra. Completely classless and unsophisticated. There's nothing classy or sophisticated at the National Gallery, the Australian War Memorial, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library or the National Museum, no. They're all very lowbrow and pandering to the basest of tastes.
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Hehehe!! Fair point.

But look at it like this...

"Hey honey, where should we go on our holiday this year?"
"Hmmm...I'm not sure. You know what might be fun? Let's got to the place where ALL the politicians are!"

Just teasing folks. I've not been to Canberra, but I have heard good things. However I'm a particularly patriotic Melbournian.

Just got the latest copy of the Australian 'Skeptic' magazine in the mail. Attached is the back cover.
 

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Chris H said:
But look at it like this...

"Hey honey, where should we go on our holiday this year?"
"Hmmm...I'm not sure. You know what might be fun? Let's got to the place where ALL the politicians are!"
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Well, if you ignore the fact that parliament only sits for 68 days out of the year, and most of the politicians go home the rest of the time. If you include state politicians, there are usually far more politicians in Sydney or Melbourne than in Canberra at any given time.

Canberra is just where the national politicians gather some of the time. The rest of the time, it's just us Canberrans (and there are not very many local politicians; Canberra is severely under-represented in Parliament, and we have a very small territory local government.)

I realise that you're just poking fun, but it's an image of Canberra that really bugs me. What Canberra has a lot of is public servants. We poor, suffering, underpaid workers struggling to meet the fickle demands of government and provide the services the people of the nation expect.
 
politas said:
I realise that you're just poking fun, but it's an image of Canberra that really bugs me. What Canberra has a lot of is public servants. We poor, suffering, underpaid workers struggling to meet the fickle demands of government and provide the services the people of the nation expect.
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I've been to Canberra twice, and managed not to see any politicians. And I did visit Parliament! (granted, both times were over Christmas holidays)

The image I have of Canberra now, to be honest, is of a very large park with a few buildings here and there and a small city centre on the other side of the lake. That pretty much describes the whole area that includes the old and new Parliaments, the National Gallery, the High Court, the science museum etc.

One suggestion of a good place to visit outside that area is the space centre in Tidbinbilla. Oh, and Mt Stromlo.
 
wafonso said:
One suggestion of a good place to visit outside that area is the space centre in Tidbinbilla. Oh, and Mt Stromlo.
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The Mount Stromlo Observatory still has the remains of the Great Melbourne telescope - once the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, now a sad twisted hunk of metal after the 2003 bushfires.
 
arthwollipot said:
The Mount Stromlo Observatory still has the remains of the Great Melbourne telescope - once the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, now a sad twisted hunk of metal after the 2003 bushfires.
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The remains of the telescope itself were disassembled late last year and moved back to Melbourne, where Museum Victoria has a restoration project in progress. I understand remains of the dome are still on the mount, though.
 
wafonso said:
The remains of the telescope itself were disassembled late last year and moved back to Melbourne, where Museum Victoria has a restoration project in progress. I understand remains of the dome are still on the mount, though.
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Oh. My mistake. The last time I was up there was, I think, mid-last year. So I must have missed it.
 
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