Visit Canberra
A visit to Canberra can yield rich rewards for travellers who want to get a feel for Australia’s history and culture. With just over 300,000 inhabitants, it is fair to say that the nation’s capital punches above its weight on the international stage, and you will be hard pushed to find another city that manages to squeeze so many impressive monuments into such a small space. From Parliament House to the National Gallery of Australia, this is a city that has a sense of significance, but you will also find that there is a quirkier edge to Canberra beneath this initial appearance.
Canberra is located within the Australian Capital Territory, and is the only city within this region. It is very much a ‘planned city’, and its site was chosen in the early 20th century as a compromise, as it is found between Melbourne and Sydney. On average, citizens of Canberra are younger, better educated and more mobile than their fellow Australians in other cities, while unemployment is significantly below the nationwide level. As you might expect in a settlement of such bureaucratic import, the Australian Government is one of the largest employers in the area.
Nevertheless, to focus solely on these facts and figures is to overlook the cultural scene which gives Canberra its vibrancy and creativity. The National Gallery of Australia and the National Museum of Australia are two particular highlights. The former boasts a collection of more than 120,000 works of art, and is as comprehensive resource on the history of Australian art as you are ever likely to find. Meanwhile, the National Museum of Australia charts over 50,000 years of Australian history, from the Aborigines through to the Sydney Olympics and beyond. A visit to this museum will show you just why it has been given the accolade of Australia’s Best Tourist Attraction twice in the last decade.
Canberra is a city that manages to combine both the serious and the light hearted in one settlement. It is certainly unique within the vast range of Australian settlements, and is therefore well worth a visit. Moreover, you can take advantage of rewards on a platinum credit card while you are in Canberra. Any points you save up on platinum credit cards can then be used to purchase flights back to Canberra for another visit.