We had read Bill Bryson’s account of the visitor’s center in Cowra and the amazing holographic presentation of the historic prison break. During WWII, there was a large prisoner of war camp outside Cowra. On one side were 2,000 Italians, on the other side, 2,000 Japanese. The Italians were model prisoners. Many, happy to be away from the front lines, made the best of things. They worked on local farms and were only lightly guarded. Their officers weren’t guarded at all.
The Japanese, on the other hand, refused to work or cooperate at all. The shame of capture was so great that many gave false names. Then in August 1944, 1100 of them staged a massive breakout in the middle of the night. They burst from their barracks with a banzai cry and charged en masse at the guards clutching baseball bats, chair legs, and any other weapons they could find. The guards poured bullets into the mass but were quickly overwhelmed. Within minutes, 378 prisoners had escaped into the countryside. It took 9 days to round them all up. The furthest any of them got was 15 miles. The casualties were 231 Japanese killed and 112 wounded.
At the visitor’s center in Cowra, there were photos and artifacts-but in the back room was a holographic explanation of the breakout. You sat in a darkened room, music began to play and suddenly one of the people in the photo in front of you appeared to step out of the picture and started to walk around the objects and talked about Cowra in the 1940’s and the prison breakout. The girl, about 6” tall, was 3 dimensional and it was the most amazing way to bring history to life.
We arrived in Canberra, headed to the Visitors Center and got a great weekend deal at the Hyatt Hotel. Canberra was exactly as described by Bill Bryson. It was chosen as the capital of Australia in 1901. Because Sydney and Melbourne were so closely matched, the new nation decided to build their new capital somewhere in the bush. They formed the Australian Capital Territory (a federal zone on the model of Washington, D.C.) The city is cold in the winter, blazing hot in the summer and in the middle of nowhere. It is one of the world’s largest planned communities in the world. It is also forty miles off the main road from Sydney to Melbourne and there are no rail lines into it. And, the only approach to the city from the west is a dirt track.
It was a very strange city – all lawns and trees and hedges and a huge ornamental lake in the middle. But, there was no sense of the city. We opted to walk to the War Museum from our hotel. We walked for what seemed like miles past non-descript blocks of 60’s style buildings. Finally we reached Anzac Parade and had a sense of deja-vu; it was like being in the Soviet Union. Excessively wide streets with a huge green space in-between. On either side of the “promenade” were tributes to the wars fought by Australia.
The War Museum was truly impressive. We took a 2+ hour tour with a very knowledgeable guide. The museum focuses on the history of the wars that Australia has participated in.
We walked and drove all around the city, looking for any semblance of activity or feeling of a vibrant city life. We found nothing. Attempts to make pedestrian friendly malls were populated only by 16 year olds on skateboards. We did manage to find a lovely Indian restaurant and used our dinner to plan our escape from Canberra.
Once again, Bryson’s experience came to mind. After an endless day of walking and trying to find the soul of Canberra, he ended up at a bar, drinking and making up slogans for Canberra:
“Canberra- There’s Nothing to it” or “Canberra-Why Wait for Death?” or “Canberra- Gateway to Everywhere Else" *
*From Bill Bryson's book, "In a Sunburned Country" - a MUST READ for anyone making the journey to Australia!
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