Canberra?

[Tim Meisburger]

I'm going to be in Canberra next week for a conference, and wonder if its worth packing my 4x5. I will be staying near parliament, but I see on the map there are some parks around, and something that might be a mountain? Probably I've only realistically got Sunday afternoon for anything extensive. If I don't take the view camera I'll pack my homemade pinhole, as I get up early and that is always fun in cities in the early AM.

Any suggestions? On my last trip I barely left the hotel, but this time I arrive early enough on Sunday I could roam around five or six hours (if I'm not too jet-lagged).

Also I have a lens for sale in the For Sale section (a Cooke Portrait Anastigmat Soft Focus), and a 15" Homocentric I will post today, that I could throw in my luggage if someone wanted one.

[jonreid]

Am not a local but the mountain is Black Mountain and is covered in a big telecoms tower. Canb has some nice architecture if that's your thing. High court. Two parliament houses. Australian museum. National library. War memorial. Mostly rural land surrounds the city. Google Earth, with the user-submitted picture layer turned on, is your friend.
Hope this helps.

Jon

[welly]

Watch out for drop bears...

[Tim Meisburger]

Thanks Jon. I've had a look at it and that, or one of the other hills, might be a nice afternoon hike.

Welly, why do people there drop beers? Are the glasses slippery, or are the people generally intoxicated?

[Michael Wynd]

The war memorial is probably the best thing in Canberra as far as architecture is concerned, next would be the Carillion on Lake Burley Griffin. If you've got time, you might want to go to Mount Stromlo to photograph the remains of the astronomical observatory that was burnt in the bushfires of 2003. I've only been here 20 months so I probably hae left a lot out.
And it's drop bears not beers. Google it LOL