17 March 2008
Bridging the distance
Posted by Mick under: Expeditions; Historical Info .
While i was heading out of Canberra on Saturday morning to continue my return journey from Sydney to Melbourne, i thought i’d continue a tradition I started a while ago by dropping into some of the shops at the buildings the house a large chunk of Australia’s amazing (yet short) history…the National Museum of Australia, the National Film & Sound Archive, Old Parliament House and the National Library of Australia.
I love the shop at the National Museum of Australia as it continues an interesting mixed bag of items from aboriginal art, flags, tourist trinkets, pottery and fluffy kids toys. While in there I picked up a coffee mug for mum which is covered with the National and State Floral Emblems of Australia.
While in the shop at the National Film & Sound Archive i picked up an ABC DVD, Constructing Australia. This is a three episode DVD covering the stories behind the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the famous explorer John McDouall Stuart (who traversed the Australian mainland from south to north in 1862) and the construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line which followed and allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world in 1872, and the design and construction of the Coolgardie Pipeline which is a 530km long pipeline suppling water to the Western Australian goldfields from Perth. This is a fascinating DVD.
A quick stop at the Old Parliament House shop, ended with me not purchasing anything…though over the years i have picked up a few interesting items there.
Final stop was the National Library of Australia. It’s been a while since visits to the National Library, so i spent quite a while in the well stocked shop and ended up getting a copy of “The Dig Tree: The Extraordinary Story of the Ill-fated Burke and Wills 1860 Expedition” by Sarah Murgatroyd.
Before leaving the National Library, i thought i should go in and see the exhibition that was on which is called, Bridging the distance, and is on between March the 6th and June the 15th 2008.
Was i glad i went in as i got to see some amazing pieces from the Library collection which don’t often come out on display including the three items below which just =blew me away :)
The first fascinating item of history was a water bottle used by Captain Charles Sturt (wikipedia) in the 1820’s - IMAGE: nla.pic-an6393462.
The second item was a huge surveying instrument used by Sir Thomas Mitchell (wikipedia) during his three expeditions between 1831 and 1846 - IMAGE: nla.pic-an6393476-1.
The final and most amazing thing i saw was the diary of William John Wills (wikipedia), which was used between the 23rd of April and the 18th of June 1861, during the ill-fated Burke & Wills expedition (wikipedia) to cross Australia. A transcript and other information on Wills Diary can be found at this NLA site.
It’s not often you get to see some major artefacts from Australia’s “white” history like the three above, so i highly recommend you drop in to the National Library of Australia and check the exhibition out.
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