Canberra--Australia's Capital

After New Years in Sydney we headed for Canberra.  It was recommended to see the War Memorial, but we had no idea what we were in for. We thought it would just be a memorial building or statues, but it turned out to be a HUGE museum with all the various wars documented...every war that Australia had ever participated in. There were huge life-like dioramas, displays, interactive displays, planes, tanks, guns, etc.  it really brought home the destruction, devastation, futility, and horror of wars.  There was one display where you were physically inside a replica of a bomber cockpit with all the sounds, vibration, visuals of a bombing raid...quite moving.  We don't have any photos of all of the inside displays, but even the outside of this building was impressive.  They also have walls with engravings of every name of every soul lost in the wars.  Again, quite moving.

 This is the capital/parliament building seen from the War Memorial site.

 The War Memorial building and grounds.

 Inside the building of the memorial.

 Another view toward the government building from the War Memorial.

 We also went to visit the Mint where all the Australian coins are made.  Their 50 cent piece is about the size of a silver dollar in Canada, but a $2 coin is maybe halfway between our dime and our nickel and a one dollar coin is about the size of our quarter...go figure?

This is the machinery involves while the robot in the previous photo does most of the work.  Bills aren't printed here, they're done in Melbourne in another factory.  The strangest info is that Australia actually makes all our plastic "paper" money as they have the patent for the new plastic bills.