Memorial and Museum Toursits

I was talking to one of my best girls in the world, Amanda Huck, and she reminded me that I need to kick my butt into gear and send out this new post! So lets get at it!

Monday, they really wore us out because they took us to three different buildings around Sydney for a class field trip on Australia history and government.

Our first stop landed us at the ANZAC War memorial in Sydney is dedicated to the thousands of men and women from New South Whales, Australia that have served or are currently serving in the military. It was originally opened after World War One when Australia made its first debut for the British Empire, but was re-dedicated 50 years later to all service men and women.

The picture to the right is the main statue inside the memorial which is called the Spartan Statue of Sacrifice. Holding up the statue are three women: his mother, sister and wife who is also holding a baby which represents Australias past present and future.

Now, the picture to the left looks like I took a picture of a chocolate stain on a white shirt I failed to scrub out. However, it means a whole lot more. WHat you can't tell is that this picture is actually the ceiling inside the memorial and on the ceiling are 120,000 gold metal stars that represent the amount of New South Whales citizens that SERVED in WWI.

After the memorial we walked through Hyde Park, which I've shown you before in the picture to the right. We then reached the Parliment House where we had to check ourselves through security and were taken into the Legislative Assembly House.

The guy giving us the tour was an as* and said you only have ten seconds to take photos, and go! He told us about the Speaker, how security can throw people out and how there is an $800,000 mallet type thing they bring into the room which lets the room know they are in session and there is freedom of speech.
To the left you can see the room with the podium and media seating up in the balcony and to the right is actually a lavish looking chair which has a note on it telling you to keep your dirty mits off it. This chair has only been sat in twice (allegedly) by Queen Elizabeth and her son Charles. Hint, the royalty factor.

Some random facts for you about Australia: that once you register to vote once, you have to vote until youre 6 feet under or else you are fined around $150. They have a party called the Liberals, but they are actually the conservative party. Yes, they are still a monarchy because of Great Britain. The Queen appoints the Governor aka Head of State.

After the Parliment house we headed down the street and around the corner and found the Sydney Museum. Before we walked into the building which is actually the base of a skyscraper building for a business company, there were carved wooden posts outside which resembled Aboriginal traditions. You were suppose to be able to hear sounds and music coming out of the posts, but we didn't hear a thing.


Inside the museum, it was pretty small, but it did offer quite a few different things. We first looked at how so many herbs and spice and much needed materials were brought into Sydney which is on such an isolate continent. In the picture to the left is a wall with the herbs and materials with their origin written across them. This is also A.J. standing in front of them. 

The museum had interactive screens describing the history of the bridge being built, local artists looking to capture the uniqueness of neighborhoods in Sydney as well as cases with old artifacts. They weren't really big on you taking pictures, but I snapped a few. To the right is a picture of some of the boats the British shipped convicts over to Australia on.

After we left the Sydney Museum, one of our local professors told us to walk around the corner and check out the Customs House in the picture to the left.

It was where people who be sent right after de-boarding the ship back in the day. However, the cool thing about the place was that when you walked inside you were standing on glass floor that had a replica of the entire city of Sydney (1/500,000th the size) beneath the glass in the picture to the right. It was measure down to the last park and type of architecture for each building.


Ill post about Tuesday and Wednesday and today in the next post :)

Love,

ME