Sahrana

We went to Canberra for Baba's Sahrana.   The service took place in the church at the Serbian Monastery and the interment was in the cemetery in the Monastery grounds.  The forecast rain didn't eventuate and overall the send off was as she would have wanted it.

The ANZAC tradition

It appears a lot of money is to be spent on commemorating the centenary of the ANZAC landing next year.  However, the amount involved has raised eyebrows, for example in this ABC report.

However, in academia, apparently the issue goes a lot deeper than the money.   The matter is the subject of an article in the April 2014 issue of Quadrant (Mervyn F Bendle, The Military Historians' War on the Anzac Legend).   Bendle's article identifies a group of historians, including (strangely?) some at the Australian Defence Force Academy, who have have described the tradition in such terms as "Anglo-Celtic ...Anzac mythology [and] military fable".   There seems to be quite an overlap between these people and those behind the Honest History website.

Bendle particularly takes to task the views put forward in recent books by Prof Joan Beaumont (Broken Australia:   Australians in the Great War) and James Brown (Anzac's Long Shadow:  The Cost of our National Obsession), but along the way mentions a number of other historians  who have, in one way or another, taken issue with a number of the traditional and popular views of Australia's military history.




Let me say at the outset that I haven't carefully read the books that Bendle mentions, but I was taken by Bendle's colourful description of them as contributions to "the campaign of denigration of what is seen as a 'festival of mythology'".   Bendle quotes Brown as stating, "This year an Anzac orgy begins.  A commemorative program that would make the pharaohs envious".    Brown is an ex-Army officer and an academic at the Australian Defence Force Academy.   Bendle describes Brown's view of the Digger tradition  "as a sort of cultural cancer within the military, promoting mythical ideas about the capabilities of Australian soldiers, and giving them ideas above their station."   Hmm, a the risk of drawing a conclusion here, it sounds as though Brown thinks the tradition pays insufficient respect to the dignity that ought to be afforded to military officers as trained at the Academy.

Bendle notes that another historian in this category is Peter Stanley (author of Bad Characters, Sex, Crime, Mutiny and the Australian Imperial Fire, and who is quoted in the ABC report linked above), who includes in his criticism of the Anzac tradition the fact that it "unfairly favours old Anglo-Celtic families who [have] direct connections with those who served in and lived through the Great War", thus discriminatorily excluding "non-Anglo-Celtic Australians".

Joan Beaumont (these days also a Canberra academic) is said to have a wider range of issues with the tradition.  Summarised, her views appear to be that the tradition insufficiently reflects the role of the women on the home front (such as, having actually to read in letters from the front about the miseries), as well as obscuring the memory of the 1917 general strike.  She sees issues of the war years as leading to Australia in the 1920s as polarised between volunteers and shirkers, conscriptionists and anti-conscriptionists, Protestants and Catholics, workers and bosses and radicals and reactionaries.

Perhaps indeed history is multi-faceted, but the thought crossed my mind that some of these views seem to be in a similar category to an American historian writing about the effect that Paul Revere's ride had on his horse!
   
I notice, however, that the Weekend Australian  is having none of this doubting!   In the issue of 19-20 April, there was both an article by Peter Cochrane, referring to Anzac Day having been "reborn" as an appreciation of the trauma suffered not only by those who were directly involved but also by later generations in a variety of ways. And in the review section of that issue, an extract from Patsy Adam-Smith's 1978 work, The Anzacs, was published (although perhaps this isn't entirely unconnected with the fact that the book itself is being republished).

Accommodation in Canberra

This post is a bit belated, but when we were in Canberra for the Australia Day long weekend, we once again stayed at the Quality Inn in the Dickson precinct.    The main appeal is that this location is on the same side of Canberra as the St Sava Monastery.   Even though the hotel doesn't look much from outside, it's very satisfactory, although a power fault of some sort one morning meant there was no hot water and the lifts weren't operating (we did get a bit of a discount off that night's accommodation).    But even though it's ultimately owned by the CFMEU, News Corp papers are free for the taking along with the Fairfax papers, at the reception desk.  

As to the ownership, I did pause to think about this, but then decided that I've never previously considered that as an issue when deciding where to stay (I wonder if we've ever stayed at a property owned by the mafia?)  Thus if the place ticks most of the other boxes, why should I change my approach now?   Anyway, all the electrical leads are "tagged".  Perhaps I ought to be re-assured by that?

In fact, my employer's clients are mostly in the corporate sector, yet the offices are in a building owned by Cbus.  So, if they're not worried about issues such as this, why should I be?

Dickson itself is sometimes promoted as a good place to eat. I think has more to do with quantity of restaurants rather than quality, and Asian restaurants of one variety or another are very well represented.    There's also a Peruvian restaurant, but we contented ourselves with looking at it from the outside.

Also in Canberra for the weekend were a number of bike riders.   I don't think they were an "outlaw" gang, but they were noisy (and intimidating), just the same!   We saw them arrive in groups of 15 - 20, but I was just finishing my visit to the National Archives when they all arrived at the nearby carpark - hundreds of them.   The Archives staff member who joined us watching them arrive kindly pointed out that there was a side exit, so a couple of us were able to leave without swimming against the tide of all the bikes.

The National Archives

Housed in the East Block, the display rooms of the National Archives are quite interesting.    Like the National Library, one hopes that what is on display is only the tip of the iceberg and that somewhere there are warehouses full of historical records.    Like the the bookstacks that I now understand the National Library has in an out-of-town warehouse, boxes of old documents aren't on display at the main Archives building!

I visited the Archives when in Canberra, and the material on display was interesting, even though the  theme is similar to that encountered elsewhere in Canberra:  a look at aspects of our country's history (often through a "politically correct" lens).  The first room is an introduction to the Archives' work, and is called "Memories of a Nation".   Other areas deal with early photographs of Canberra (the Mildenhall photos) and there's quite an area devoted to the Snowy scheme.

At present, there's also a special exhibition called "I've been Working on the Railway", devoted to the experiences of indigenous people working on railway construction and maintenance in the 50s, 60s and 70s.   This was an era that included the re-construction of the Mt Isa railway as well as the large scale construction of the first Bowen Basin coal lines and Pilbara iron ore lines.    Apparently many indigenous people were employed on these projects, which involved hard physical work, separation from families and camp life.   I found this well presented and interesting, although it needs to be remembered that although indigenous people were involved in this work, and the display is all about their story, other people were also involved - a fact that, at least so far as I could see, was only mentioned once.   It would be helpful to know, for example, what percentage they comprised of the workforce, even if only an approximation.


It was also interesting to have the opportunity to see inside parts of the East Block, one of the original Canberra buildings.
 

The railway museum in Canberra

The Australian Railway Historical Society has a large collection of railway equipment on part of what used to be the goods sidings close to Canberra station.  Some of it is yet to be restored (such as a former "Southern Aurora" carriage). However, there's an impressive collection on display and open for inspection. 
I visited the museum when in Canberra.  It's clear that a lot of work has already gone into it.  The items on display include a number of locos and also other equipment such as carriages (including a former buffet car and a sleeping car), a ganger's trolley and more. 

Of course the star attraction is the 60 class Bayer Garratt loco  (number 6029).     I was told that the restoration work on this has reached a stage where the loco will soon be in a position to operate!









However, I found the carriages and rolling stock fascinating, too.  It doesn't seem all that long ago when this was the way we travelled.




The rail motor is operational and I went for a short ride on it.

Driver's view from rail motor

The High Court

At long last, during our recent trip,  I made the obligatory pilgrimage to the High Court in Canberra - or at least, to the building where the court sits.

From the outside, this is a big building, but inside a lot of the space is the atrium.    The guide on duty in one of the courtrooms was honest enough to admit that the colours of the carpets in the various court rooms is very "70s-ish".  My overall impression was that there's a lot of building to support seven people, but I suppose they carry a lot of responsibility so perhaps that justifies their accommodation.

For the record, this is one of the few places in Canberra where there are no restrictions on photography inside (although the Court wasn't sitting when I visited).

Building where the High Court sat in Melbourne before it became based in Canberra - much more modest!

The National Library

I had never been to the National Library and, in fact, was only vaguely aware of its existence.  But I was given a ticket (thanks, A) to a guided tour of the current temporary exhibition, "Mapping Our World - Terra Incognito to Australia".  This is an impressive display of maps starting with some indigenous material and a Ptolemy map from about 90 AD (rediscovered in about 1300), and the amazing Venetian map by Fra Mauro. This is perhaps the highlight of the exhibition, given the size of the map and the complexities involved in bringing it from Venice to Canberra.

The exhibition then proceeds through the "discovery" era maps of the Portuguese, Dutch and of course Cook and the other English explorers and culminating in Flinders' "General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia".     All very interesting indeed.

There's also a permanent exhibition in the "Treasures Gallery", which contains a display of maps, pictures, photographs and objects designed to illustrate episodes in Australian history.   Again, the range of material on display is quite breath-taking.

As for the library itself, sorry, no bookstacks at all!    I guess they must exist somewhere but seemingly are not for public access.    There are various reading  rooms (complete with arrays of computer terminals, as well as people reading hard copies).  There are also some Leonard French windows - quite nice but not as impressive as the ceiling in Melbourne's National Gallery.

Edit:   As we were leaving Canberra, I noticed a warehouse-type building with a National Library sign on it.    Maybe the bookstacks are out in a warehouse, instead of on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin!

The National Portrait Gallery

I've previously blogged with my thoughts about the National Portrait Gallery.    As I stated in that post, I quite like this Gallery.  In particular, a reasonable proportion of the art is relatively conservative. Ar least, that is, until you get into the "Australia Now" room.

I revisited the gallery when in Canberra and confirmed my belief that I don't really like the Princess Mary portrait, even though it still has a very prominent position.   And this time there was even a religious portrait (mind you, just one, at least so far as I could see), being Bishop Burgman. Even this work (on loan, and there because Judy Cassab's work was being highlighted) is an "interesting" choice.  I've always thought this secular trait in this Gallery suggests a particular "take" on its claim to select portraits of Australians who have been "significant in the field of endeavour".    For example, Eddie Mabo, Clarles Perkins, Neville Bonner and Harold Blair are all there, side by side.   And the Gallery has managed to obtain photographs of Lee-Lin Chin and Tim Winton.


Anyway, Whitlam and Kerr still hang side-by-side.   Menzies and Evatt are separated by two other portraits,  both politicians (one Liberal, one Labor).

There was a special display of Elvis Presley photos, but I didn't have a lot of time so decided not to pay the charge to enter this section.

[Edited 26 Jan 14]