Bart Bear's Blog

Our local government here in Canberra has a policy of putting sculpture in public places in the city. Some of these sculptures are cute and quirky and some are frankly horrible. The newest one is the best, in the opinion of this small bear. It is a statue of Alexander Bunyip, a character in a series of kid's stories by Michael Salmon, so it is outside the new library at Gungahlin. In the first of these stories Alexander, who is a short-sighted bunyip, comes to live in Lake Burley Griffin, the big lake in the centre of Canberra which has most of our iconic buildings built close to it. Being short-sighted, Alexander mistakes the buildings for food and proceeds to eat most of them before he is captured and sent to the zoo. You can see some of the buildings behind him; the Telstra tower that he thought was an ice-cream, the National Library that he thought was a cake and the Academy of Science dome that he mistook for a pie. It is a funny story for kids and small bears that live in Canberra. Bunyips are mythical creatures that the aboriginals say live in rivers, lakes and billabongs. They roar loudly at night and chase and eat people who stray from the camp at night. Nobody has actually seen one, and if they did catch one I am sure that it wouldn't look like my friend Alexander.

Labels: Canberra