Canberra Oct 2019

[ozbob]

I will be spending a few days Canberra (9-12 Oct).

Canberra airport  #3 bus to City Interchange, then light rail.

Free journey - Interstate Seniors Card (myway I have one  – concession fares apply at all times. Off-peak fares between the hours of 9am and 4.30pm, weekend and public holidays are free.  https://www.transport.act.gov.au/tickets-and-myway/get-myway )

Route 3. Printable timetable and map (PDF file)


I  have been invited to attend  and will be attending the launch of the Gillespie bequest: brothers in arms exhibition at the Australian War Memorial at the AWM on the 10th.  https://www.awm.gov.au/about/our-work/projects/gillespie-bequest-vietnamese-australian-experiences-vietnam-war

Gillespie bequest: brothers in arms exhibition.

This new art commission by the Australian War Memorial explores the Vietnamese–Australian wartime experience and the relationship between Australian and South Vietnamese military personnel during the war.

In 2012 a bequest to purchase works of art was left to the Australian War Memorial by retired Major John Milton Gillespie, a Vietnam veteran and immigration consultant. In recognition of this significant gift and Mr Gillespie's life and work, the Memorial subsequently commissioned artworks that explores the wartime experience of Vietnamese–Australians and its continuing legacy. Dr Dacchi Dang's artistic  response illustrates this important aspect of Australian history.

Dr Dacchi Dang spent his childhood in Saigon; his experiences of the war came from the media and the streets. In 1982, aged 16, he arrived in Australia as a refugee. He has since become an acclaimed artist, exhibiting his works across Australia and internationally. To create Brothers in arms Dang interviewed veterans of Australian and South Vietnamese forces about their experiences of the war. It is their stories that shaped these important new works in the Memorial's collection.

What: the Gillespie bequest: brothers in arms exhibition launch

Where: Captain Reg Saunders Gallery, Australian War Memorial

When: 9 am, Thursday, 10 October 2019

I was interviewed and supplied some 35 mm slides for this exhibition.

So I will be able to do some more tramming !!  Staying very close to the Macarthur Avenue light rail station.



Access is via the Captain Reg Saunders Courtyard door

[ozbob]

Australian War Memorial Visitor information

https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/visitor-information

10am to 5pm daily

[ozbob]

https://www.transport.act.gov.au/about-us/public-transport-options/light-rail/using-light-rail

[ozbob]

https://www.transport.act.gov.au/about-us/public-transport-options/light-rail/light-rail-network/Light-Rail-Network-Expansion

Light Rail Network Expansion

With the business case for Stage 2A endorsed, work has commenced on extending light rail to Commonwealth Park.

This 1.7km extension, due to commence operations in 2024, will see three new stops added to the network and will help move an extra 3,000 passengers daily within the first year of operations.

The project scope includes:

Three new stations, with stops at City West, City South and Commonwealth Park
1.7kms of double track, with an integrated ticketing system
Four new light rail vehicles
Power supply and transmission, with 100% renewable energy being used to power operations.
Traffic signalling, road improvements and tree plantings

[ozbob]

I plan to walk along the route for 2A. 

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Transport_CBR/status/1179619597772840960

[ozbob]

Going to be a bit chilly ... Canberra forecast  http://www.bom.gov.au/act/forecasts/canberra.shtml

Wednesday 9 October  Early frost. Partly cloudy.
Min 1 Max 17

Thursday 10 October  Early frost. Becoming cloudy.
Min 1 Max 19

Friday 11 October  Shower or two.
Min 4 Max 16

[SurfRail]

Stage 2A would have come in handy for Floriade.  I was in town over the weekend to see friends and Cth Ave southbound was chockers with people driving up.

[ozbob]

At BNE, been bumped to the front #winning ... 

Might get lucky and be next to a big wig or something ... 

Did you manage to go for ride on the trams last weekend SurfRail?  I will be back on them later today, all going well.

[SurfRail]

Yes - keep an eye out for no. 6, which is in a Floriade wrap.

Down there they at least keep the doors clear so you can make them out.

The weekend bus network is a bit wobbly at the moment, similar issues to QR with it being driven by industrial arrangements and driver availability.  Even most of the rapids don't run more frequently than every 30 minutes, and most feeders are every 2 hours.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1181727426495168513

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1181729800899026944

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1181733522572115968

[ozbob]

 

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1181774653074706432

[SurfRail]

That's interesting - this is what it looked like on Saturday:

[ozbob]

^ looks like they put another wrap on since the weekend.  Looked very new.

I am staying at the MacArthur Mantra.  Quite novel having breakfast overlooking the light rail .. 

[ozbob]

General Sir John Monash - great General and railway builder ! 

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182070507375448065

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182075487062855680

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182082890152067073

[ozbob]

Cheap as chips travelling around on the Visiting Seniors Concession MyWay.  Only paid 79 cents so far, forgot to touch off somewhere ...



Coming back from the War Memorial on the 54 bus. Three international visitors boarded the bus after me. 

Driver waved them on, free trips ..   

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182078102916100102

[ozbob]

That's interesting - this is what it looked like on Saturday:

It's different on each side 

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182123149392920576

[Stillwater]

Those bus stop shelters looking like giant sewer pipe off-cuts plonked on their end are all over Canberra.  Efficient and water proof, easy to wash out when cleaning. They are precast and can be plonked anywhere using a crane.

Certainly different from some of the heritage timber bus stop shelters in the older inner suburbs.  A couple look like public dunnies.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6054302/heritage-protection-likely-for-canberras-timber-bus-shelters

[ozbob]

As i has said before Mr Stillwater. If you keep your head down, one would survive a 105 mm howitzer shell impacting next door, so to speak in one of these bus shelters  ...

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182075487062855680

AWM --> Bequest enables art commission exploring Vietnamese–Australian perspectives of war

The Australian War Memorial has unveiled two commissioned artworks created by Vietnamese-born artist Dr Dacchi Dang, highlighting the underrepresented wartime experience of Vietnamese–Australians.

The development of the artworks was made possible through a bequest by retired Major John Milton Gillespie, a Vietnam veteran and immigration consultant.

In recognition of this significant gift and Major Gillespie's life and work, the Memorial chose to use the bequest to commission work that acknowledges and responds to the Vietnamese–Australian experience of the Vietnam War.

The works represent the first substantial acquisition for the Memorial's collection from the Vietnamese–Australian perspective on the Vietnam War. These include the first hand-drawn animation in the collection, featuring an estimated 1.5 million drawing marks across 120,000 frames.

Memorial Director Dr Brendan Nelson said bequests such as Major Gillespie's allowed the Memorial to bring focus to stories and experiences that have previously been overlooked.

"It is vital that we acknowledge all perspectives on the war, and it is thanks to Major Gillespie's generous bequest that the Memorial has been able to commission Dr Dang to create artworks responding to this important but relatively little-known aspect of Australian history," Dr Nelson said.

Dr Dang said he wanted to concentrate on the relationship between Australians and the South Vietnamese, and in 2016 began interviewing veterans who served in the war with Australian or South Vietnamese forces.

"Since their resettlement in Australia, Vietnamese veterans' stories have largely been silent in Australian communities," Dr Dang said.

"My aim is to create a new understanding of, and a relationship to the representation of, the memories and experiences of the Vietnam War through the tales of Australian and Australian–South Vietnamese veterans."

These stories have informed the creation of two major artworks, a series of lacquer panels and a video artwork. Dr Dang used traditional Vietnamese lacquer to create a tangible connection with the subject (a short documentary about the project and the creation of the lacquer panels can be found here). The video is a hand-drawn animation that explores Dr Dang's personal experiences of the war, while also drawing from interviews with 17 veterans of the South Vietnamese and Australian forces.

Memorial curators worked in partnership with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, a national organisation promoting the work of Asian and Asian–Australian artists, to research and identify contemporary artists working with Vietnamese–Australian stories.

Dr Dang's artworks will be on display for six months in the Captain Reg Saunders Gallery.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

About the artist

Dr Dacchi Dang (b. 1966) spent his childhood in Ho Chi Minh City, and his experiences of the war came from the media and the streets. In 1982, at the age of 16, he and his siblings fled Vietnam, enduring a traumatic sea voyage in a fishing boat, spending nine months in the Pulau Bidong camp in Malaysia before being accepted as refugees to Australia. Dr Dang learned English, obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Masters of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales, and a PhD from Griffith University. His research-based practice has focused on the Vietnamese diaspora and the experiences and sense of identity of refugees. His work has been exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally.

About the art collection

The Memorial holds one of the world's most extensive and important collections of war-related art. It comprises almost 40,000 works of art in all media, dating from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The collection focuses on work that depicts and interprets the Australian experience of war and its legacies for Australian society. It includes commissioned and non-commissioned work by historically significant artists including Arthur Streeton, George Lambert, Nora Heysen, Russell Drysdale, Grace Cossington-Smith, Albert Tucker, and Sidney Nolan, as well as work by contemporary artists such as Julie Dowling, Shaun Gladwell, Tony Albert, Tom Nicholson, and Ben Quilty. A partial catalogue of the collection is available online at: https://www.awm.gov.au/#search-awm/collections.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182404663405998080


https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182411161590829057

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182408200244432896

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182426411325243393

[#Metro]

So they finally got rid of the via Barton option?

[ozbob]

Back to Brisbane today.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the past few days in Canberra.  Buses are generally good, the light rail is going from strength to strength.  Fares are very reasonable.  I stayed at the Mantra Macarthur hotel.  Very convenient, next door to the Macarthur Avenue light rail station.

Transport Canberra has had some problems getting enough bus drivers and there has been some weekend service reductions.
Steps are being taken to get more drivers.

I will be on rail replacement from Corinda to Goodna on the journey from BNE.   

[ozbob]

Bit more on Dacchi Chang

AWM Blog --> 'You are just holding onto each other hoping that you don't go overboard'



Brothers in Arms, Dacchi Dang, 2017, Lacquer and ink on plywood, 5 panels, each: 20cm x 90cm (AWM2016.626)

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182808019773509632

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1182851029794095105

[ozbob]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1182402071028330496.html

Thread by @ozbob13: "Good morning .. Ding Ding! Depot On the way to Gungahlin Inbound tram at Nullarbor Avenue Crush loading Gungahlin Number 9 departing Gungahl [...]"