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Travel: Capital conundrum
Why is it that Australians believe Canberra is the most boring city in the country? Tourists definitely don’t share this point of view
“I’ d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today. I would also like to pay my respects to Elders past and present.”
We arrive in Canberra just a few days before the big national election, one that will displace the sitting PM just a week later. But conversation in the political powerhouse of Australia seems to be about anything but politics.
Are Australians apolitical? Why aren’t more people talking about the general election just one week away?
Instead, we are treated to an unexpected prelude. At the start of every tour we take, we hear the words at the beginning of this story. “We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land… and pay respects to Elders past and present.”
This isn’t the Australia I first visited as a fresh college graduate in the early 2000s. The impression I received then that Australia was simply an extension of Great Britain is distinctly dissipating today, and the younger lot of Aussies seem more American in their behaviour. The pronounced acknowledgment of the aboriginals and other tribes that lived on this land before the colonisers arrived gives the modern first world nation a depth it never had before.
We learn that this tradition is just 14 years old—with a bill passed in parliament as recently as 2008—and that up until the previous government, there had been just one senator ever from the indigenous people, though there is every positive indication that a healthier mix will be prevalent in the not so distant future.
Politics is for politicians
We learn these facts, and more at the Australian Parliament House late one autumn afternoon. A modern day structure quite akin to the first buildings of several countries: from Washington DC to New Delhi and Brasilia, this edifice of power is surrounded by vast grounds, ample green and broad avenues.
“Oh drat, there’s another protest on…” my driver sighs just before she drops me to the front entrance.
“Where?” I ask, looking around for some people (and tbh, also some excitement).
I am pointed to the car park on the far side where half a dozen people are standing alongside vans with two or three hastily painted placards. The entire group is smaller than most of the Indian-turned-Australian families I encounter inside the building, so I suppress a silent laugh.
The Parliament House itself is a triangular shaped building with easy access to anyone who cares to visit. Most Australia-born Australians are made to do a compulsory school trip in grade six, which is probably one of the reasons they’re cheesed off with Canberra (more on that later)!
The majority of my co-visitors this afternoon are newly-minted Australian citizens of Indian origin, thirsting to see what their new country is all about. I indulge in some great conversations with a few: What is it like to love one culture (India) but be thankful to another (Australia) in the quest for a better life? Will you want your children to grow up with strict Indian values that many immigrant parents tend to impose? Thankfully, the millennial mums and dads I meet have no such intentions.
The Parliament House is surprisingly easy to enter, with no ID check, just a thorough security screening. Guided tours are available. As someone who shuns being shunted around, I decided to explore the building on my own, and had the most beautiful afternoon of my entire trip.
The large hall with portraits of all the former PMs of Australia caught my attention first: how the paintings from the past had graduated to more photograph-like visuals said a lot, the stiff British fashion apparent in most, and the short terms many leaders served, signs of a vibrant democracy that worked. Disappointingly, Australia had no woman Prime Minister till 2010, and just half a dozen portraits in a back room were enough to show the more recent women leaders, as well as the first (and only, as of early May 2022) Aboriginal senator.
The Red Room for the senators and the House of Commons are open for all visitors to explore, and you can see just a few metres away, the place where the prime minister and leader of the opposition sit at a table on regular office chairs, and spar over the decisions that will take this nation forward.
We learn that it is mandatory by law for every Australian citizen to cast a vote, and interestingly, a majority of the ones we met had “advance voted” much before the actual day of election.
The fun parts of the Parliament House lie on the roof, with a beautifully manicured lawn that one wants to picnic on, and in the room by the exit that holds a giant Lego model of the building. If quirky is an Aussie trait, it’s showcased rather well.
Dine, wine and shine
One spots a good number of young South Asians in Canberra: working at restaurants and bars, as delivery boys, even Uber drivers. This is for two reasons: the Australian National University is a popular choice for international students, and the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) allows for more credits for Permanent Residents to get citizenship sooner.
But also on display in Canberra is the diversity that makes up Australia as it is today.
Dinner on Night One is at Italian and Sons, a cosy restaurant on the main street of downtown, run for the last two decades by an Italian immigrant family. The food is fabulous, but it doesn’t take a trained eye to realise the younger members of the family are more Aussie than Italian.
Bamiyan, the modern Afghani cuisine restaurant we drop by at for lunch the next afternoon, is the same. The mother, whose recipes compel guests to ask for seconds, is nowhere to be seen, but the kids are Australian and know their audiences.
Australian cuisine doesn’t pride itself over a flavour or a particular dish; it celebrates fresh, local produce that is healthy and hearty.
It is apparent that there is a concerted effort to turn Canberra into a city of museums and wine and dine. But unless the Aussies start turning up themselves, the tourists will still be few and far between.
One also wonders if Canberra is more a day city than one that’s meant for nights out. The modern museums, art galleries and all the activities around the large man-made lake called Burley Griffin—named after the American chap who planned the city of Canberra—seem to be beautiful spots to while away the day.
The local breweries notwithstanding, it’s probably the lack of a nightlife that makes Australians call Canberra the most boring city in the country. It’s the tourists that’ll make the Aussies change their mind!
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From HT Brunch, July 16, 2022
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