Australia 2017 - Day - 41 - 4th April

Day 41

After breakfast we set off at around 9.30 to drive to Canberra.  A trip of around 300km which, with one stop on route, was going to take us around 4 hours to complete.

We headed out of Sydney, which still had a fair amount of rush hour traffic on the roads and slowly we made our way out onto the open road. This was new territory to the three of us which made for a very interesting journey. We did expect to see wildlife on the way but the only Kangaroo we saw was dead on the roadside.

After a few hours we stopped at a town called Goulburn, or should I say city? It is actually a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, approximately 195 kilometres south west of Sydney and 90 kilometres north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed to be Australia's first inland city through letters from Queen Victoria in 1863. It is not a very interesting town though, with the architecture reminiscent of Victorian England.

The most interesting construction here though happens to be the largest concrete sheep in the world, known as the Big Merino.

The Big Merino

The Big Merino is a 50 ft tall concrete merino ram, located here in Goulburn. Nicknamed "Rambo" by locals, the Big Merino contains a gift shop on the ground floor and a wool display on the second floor. Visitors can climb to the top and look out through the Merino's eyes to view the local area.

The Big Merino was officially opened on 20 September 1985. But in 1992, the Hume Highway bypassed Goulburn, which resulted in the loss of 40 busloads of tourists to the Big Merino complex per day. On 26 May 2007, it was moved to a location closer to the Hume Highway to increase visitor numbers, and it is now located near the freeway interchange at a service station.

We had lunch and were soon on the road again looking for a very large lake called Lake George. When we reached it we could not believe the absence of water, so we investigated further.

Lake George

Lake George is an endorheic lake, as it has no outflow of water to rivers and oceans. It is believed to be more than a million years old. Originally, small streams drained its catchment into the Yass River, but then the Lake George Escarpment rose due to major crustal movement along a strong fault line, blocking this drainage and forming the lake.

Lake George has in previous Ice Ages been much larger and deeper. At 25km long and 10 km wide, Lake George is long, largely flat and extremely shallow, with a very small catchment. Resultant evaporation rates as well as a tendency for strong winds to blow the water back on itself explain the mysterious filling and drying episodes on both short term (hours) and long term (years) time scales that have been observed.

The lake's depth when full can range from 1.5–4.5 metres , however in many areas it is only around 0.8–1.0 metre deep. Its deepest point has been measured as 7.5 metres. When full, the lake holds about 500,000,000 cubic metres (1.8×1010 cu ft) of water. Between the late 1980s and mid-1990s, the lake lapped the Federal Highway on its western edge just where we took the 'existing' photographs from.

The lake we were expecting to see!

But this is how it was

Previously the water lapped over the road here

Water was visible just below the hills in the background

Next stop was Canberra and we were soon driving in towards the city centre and our home for the next few days, the Medina Serviced Apartments.

I did not take advantage of this facility, nor the Gym!

After unpacking we went for a walk through town and down to the lake.  Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia. It was completed in 1963 after the Molonglo River—which ran between the city centre and Parliamentary Triangle—was dammed. 

We then returned to the apartment and had a short rest before going out for the evening. Keith had found out about a new craft beer pub serving pub meals as well so we decided to go there. We were not disappointed.

The Bentspoke Brewing House

After opening its doors in 2014 and being awarded ‘Best New Venue’ at the 2015 AHA (ACT) awards, The Bentspoke has continued to move onward and upward in the Canberra beer and bar scene.

At the Braddon brewpub, just off Mort Street, you will find 18 varieties of beer and cider available at any one time, all brewed on premise. A wide range of beer styles are made by the award-winning head brewer, as well as hand crushed apple cider, and gluten-friendly ginger beer, all on full display so you can watch the brew team at work while you sample a selection of brews by the pint or in their iconic sample bars.  Keith tried a few 'hoppy' types and I stuck with the first I had tried, the Crankshaft IPA. It was delicious.  Jill tried the local hand crushed apple cider.

A modern take on the classic pub menu served here features dishes which incorporate beer, brewing ingredients and highlight great local produce. My chicken burger came in a jet black charcoal bun. Unusual to look at but great taste.

And that was that, a perfect end to a great, if tiring, day