Canberra — Far More Than Politics

If you live in Australia, Canberra is synonymous with politics — people talk about ‘what Canberra did’ — when they mean the government — yet the city is far more than that. If you live outside Australia, you may not even have heard of Canberra — yet it’s Australia’s capital (yes, you heard that right — the capital is neither Sydney nor Melbourne, it’s Canberra).

I have lived in Canberra for nearly 40 years now — long enough to discover the hidden gems, the beauty just around the corner, and all of the bits that the tourists rarely see. I am also a photographer — so I have been capturing it that way for a long time. This article is mainly images for you to enjoy — they say so much more than the words. (All images in this article copyright Kim Lambert)

While Canberra is an inland city, at its heart is a large lake — Lake Burley Griffin — which is always stunning. This image of boats on the lake was taken in midwinter! The day was utterly perfect. Here is another shot of the lake (in a different area) at sunset with the silhouette of our famous Black Mountain Tower just visible on the hills to the right.

All of this, including the wildlife shots below, is in the centre of a city of nearly half a million people.

For those of you outside Australia — yes, the kangaroos really do sometimes hop down the middle of the street — usually to get to the nice grass on the median strip, especially in winter or a drought!

Kangaroos in one of Canberra’s lakeside public parks

Black swans are very common (as they are in most of Australia) They are as big as, or bigger than, the white swans you see in the northern hemisphere.

Canberra is also a city of flowers (we have a flower festival every year, from mid September to mid October). While most of Australia has mainly evergreen trees, Canberra has a lot of deciduous trees too, and huge numbers of flowering plum trees planted all over the city. And, of course, there is wattle everywhere too.

Two different types of wattle flower, one shown with an Australian native bee.

pink plum blossom

In this article, I have intentionally avoided images of the city itself — those can wait for another article, later. This is focusing on showing you a hint of what is there, if you look away from the buildings, away from Parliament House, and seek out the beauty of nature that is right there, in the middle of the city and suburbs.

To close, here is an image of the dusk sky, just after sunset.

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