If you have any interest at all in military history, you must visit the Australian Armor and Artillery Museum at Smithfield, just north of Cairns. This is a huge shed full of tanks, mobile artillery, personnel carriers and field guns from around the world. The vehicles are mostly from WW2 or later. Over 100 are on display and many others are being restored. I will not name all of ones in these pictures for you (because I don't know all of them). The second one is important for Australian history. It is the Sentinel, the first tank designed and built in Aus. Only a few were built because tanks from the US were soon available. There are many signs forbidding climbing on the exhibits but we all know that they only apply to people, not small bears.
Labels: army, Cairns, museum, tanks
There has been a great exhibition at the National Museum here in Canberra. It is a collection of ancient Greek artifacts, mainly from their colonies scattered around the Mediterranean rather than from Greece itself. The entry to the museum has been upgraded since I was there last. The
paths are lined with native shrubs and the main path from the car park
has an inclined wall of mirrors to confuse people like Dad. Actually, I was surprised to see just how many Greek cities there were, all around the Med. No wonder the Romans considered them a threat to their expansion. This is one of the best presented exhibitions I have seen, the lighting is just right to allow clear view of both the exhibits and the captions. The exhibits ranged from large statues to tiny jewellery, but the thing I liked best was the armour. The guy that it belonged to was tiny compared to people today. Naturally, there was a shop so I found a new friend, a duck with an Olympic wreath - I call him Quackimedes. From Canberra the exhibition goes to Perth and then back to Britain.
Labels: Canberra, museum
