The Sandspur

Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: Life & Times

Media Credit: Dani Picard

Regardless of how exciting a trip to the snowfields sounds, the prospect of waking at five in the morning for any compulsory field trip seems extremely daunting. Particularly, the prospect of spending four entire days on an 'educational' trip with a strong focus on group bonding is not the most appealing way to begin a weekend. However, on one of the first Friday's in Australia, the entire bleary-eyed group crowded onto two busses, facing a fifteen-hour trek to the Thredbo Mountains.

Hopefully all of these early starts will work to make us all morning people by the end of the semester-that would definitely be a useful souvenir to take home! Thankfully, though, the program director, Dr. Boardman, is very understanding and handed us all cheery itineraries of the day listing plenty of "tea breaks" in little towns along the way. This is definitely an aspect of Australian culture worth getting used to!

The focus of the first day, however, was a stop at the nation's capital, Canberra. Now, from what I know of capital cities, they are generally the nation's highlight of nightlife and a hubbub of activity. Well, that is until I saw Canberra, which is possibly the world's most planned city, ever. The design of the city revolves around a pattern of concentric circles radiating around the government buildings in the center, with the suburbs occupying the outer rings. There is an eerie, Pleasantville seeming vibe to the obviously planned tree and shrubbery selection overhanging the empty sidewalks that are, apparently, never in use.

Once the driver seemed satisfied with our mystified gazes out the window, we pulled into the High Court of Australia for a tour. As I explained in an earlier article, the Australians divide their political structure into the same three segments of separated powers as those of the United States, so the High Court here is their version of the Supreme Court where the judgments of the federal court supersede those of the state courts. Here, we were able to visit where the seven judges sit to hear cases and, interestingly, we learned that three of the judges are female.

Following this, we explored the uniquely designed Australian Parliament building. The structure for the building was planned entirely by an American to symbolize the Australian political mentality that an ordinary person is just as important as the government. Therefore, it is built in a grassy mound construction where it is possible for a person to walk up the side of the building and literally stand on top of the government. Parliament is relatively the same as Congress with a Senate and a House of Representatives; however, unlike the United States, voting for all Australian citizens is mandatory. Those who do not vote are fined a considerable sum, so it is helpful that citizens receive time off work in this country to vote.

Continued...

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