I love free stuff!
I was very surprised at the amount of free places in Canberra there are to visit!
Here is my top five!
Australian War Memorial
The war memorial is one of our favourite places to visit, they have a huge variety of exhibitions to interest everybody. Down stairs there is a specific area for kids, with a large amount of “hands on” activities for them to discover including a helicopter that they can sit in. Up stairs there is grave the of the unknown soldier, when we were last there a volunteer guide spoke to the children about the significance of the room and shared with them a poppy each to place on the grave. The honour role of the people who have died in the wars that Australia has participated in is also upstairs around the veranda, it is a stark reminder of how many people we have lost due to war. I haven’t attended but there is also a last post ceremony each day at 4.55pm. The Australia war memorial is a very moving, educational and eye opening place to visit.
Location: Treloar Cresent (top
Opening times: 10am – 5pm
Parliament House
Parliment house is open to the public everyday except for Christmas Day. You have to go through a security check (for obvious reasons!), but after that you can wander throughout the building as you please. You can jump in on a tour, but following the map and moving around where we wanted suited us. There is a lot of artworks around to check out including a huge tapestry that’s hanging in the great hall that was designed by Arthur Boyd.You can also view both the House of Representatives and the senate from the public galleries, but the highlight for us was taking the lift up to the roof. You come out under the enormous flag pole onto grass and have great views over Canberra. Take your lunch up there and have a picnic!
Location: Parliament drive, Canberra, ACT.
Opening times: 9am – 5pm
Royal Australian mint
The kids still talk about the Australian mint as one of their highlights of our visit to Canberra. It’s here that they make every one of Australia’s coins. Best bet for this place is to jump on a tour, they are free and run every day (check out website for times) it was very informative and kept the kids entertained. The kids loved watching the robot move the coins and looking at all the coins in the stairs while I loved listening to the history of Australia’s coin. If you are a coin collector (or want to start) the shop down stairs has lots of collectables for purchase.
Location: Denison street, Deakin, Act.
Opening times: 8.30am – 5pm
The National Museum of Australia.
This is not Questacon (which is good, but does cost!), it’s a free museum which has plenty to see and do. It has a lot of exhibits on Australian history with some spaces for hands on and other interactive experiences. It’s at this museum that you will find Phar Laps heart if you are interested, but it’s like a treasure hunt to find it, I had to ask someone where it was! We spent quiet a few hours here, roaming around soaking up the history of Australia.
Location: Lawson Cresent, Acton Peninsula, Canberra, ACT.
Opening times: 9am -5pm
Deep space station
This is a bit of a drive out of Canberra, but if you have the time, don’t have really young children (not so interesting for them) and are interested in Space exploration it is worth it. Here there is an exhibition area on space exploration, viewing areas for the giant satellite dishes, videos on loop about different space topics (some a bit scientific for me, but interesting) and if you are lucky you might also see one of the satellites move. The board that listed all the space explorations that are presently taking place was also interesting, I had no idea that there was so much going on up there in space! Along the way home we stopped at a beautiful reserve that had some walks and great waterway that the kids caught tadpoles in and played for a couple of hours, not sure of what the area is called, but you can’t miss it, you pass it going to the Deep space station.
Location: 421 Discovery drive, Paddys river, ACT.
Opening times: 9am – 5pm
Note: Keep an eye on parking times and meters at all these places, the Rangers are always out and will fine you if you overstay!
Safe Travels!
Kerrie.
