Canberra in Autumn

Instead of visiting my perennial favourite getaway Melbourne this year, I paid a visit to Australia's capital, Canberra. After a "lacklustre" memory of my last trip to Canberra more than six years ago, it was time for a reassessment, if I could remember much from my previous trip at all. The other reason was to visit the Turner to Monet exhibition being held at the National Art Gallery, which has been recommended by more than a couple of friends, speaking of which the inspiration of the previous visit was also a Monet Exhibition which I visited with my flatmate then.

Canberra is a smaller city in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne, and unfortunately, there isn't too much to do in terms of tourists attractions except the Parliament, Museum and Art Galleries. It is primarily a place where government officials and embassies congregate, so there isn't too much development to the city or perhaps a need to attract tourists to this city. The good thing about this though is that there is less overcrowding of people, buildings and apartments leaving plenty of space for national parks and beautiful gardens and walkways.

It was a perfect time to visit Canberra and stroll through the Autumn colours, so beautifully represented with their gorgeous flaming red and bright yellow trees and their fallen leaves peppered along the streets. Beautiful as this sight, and as interesting as Parliament House is, there is little much else to visit in Canberra. Shopping is sparse and their Brand Depot, a factory outlet of supposedly famous brands abysmal, I was looking forward to discover a different Canberra in my mind, which unfortunately never eventuated.

Thankfully, the exhibition was excellent even though I am not a big fan of impressionist art, which made up only a fraction of the artwork presented. My favourite segments were the paintings that presented human behaviour during that period. I was intrigued by how the focus on these art pieces changed over time. Human behaviour was presented quite prominently in the early 1800s by some of these artists, which moved onto landscape as these artists ventured further away from their "comfort zones" of their towns, onto beaches, seas, volcanoes, and then back towards the simpler things in life, back to their home surroundings and gardens. There were only a handful of paintings of human study, which could be a representation of the times where little information flowed from one town to another, and these paintings were used as a form of communication about what people in the other towns and cities did. Note that this is just my interpretation based on what was presented and what little I know of art (which is practically zilch), but this was what I walked away with from the exhibition.

Some people might enjoy Canberra more than I, and though it was overall, a nice getaway it will definitely be a long time again before I pay another visit to Canberra.