I think Canberra has my favourite airport in Australia. Kingsford Smith in Sydney is where my most epic journeys begin and end, from my first international journey to many past work flights to Canberra itself. But Canberra’s modern terminal is a work of art. At least, it contains many works of sculptural art.
I had long promised Alex a visit to the airport, but flights to Canberra from Sydney are too short and too expensive. Now we are staying next to the airport, it’s a great excuse to look inside. An even better excuse is that the Canberra Airport Open Day is on. I couldn’t get any of the free tickets to the tarmac, but I figure we should still have great views inside the terminal.
First there is the unexciting buffet breakfast, disappointing in variety after what I ate in Japan, followed by a drive up to EPIC for the farmers market. There’s the usual tables of organic farm produce and sour dough breads. We buy a variety of vegetables and some Fuji apples and some Tilba Dairy cheese to take back, then return to the hotel.
It’s a short walk from the Vibe Hotel to the airport terminal, past autumn trees and Andrew Roger’s enormous posing man Perception and Reality sculpture, Australia’s largest bronze figure. Up the escalator to departures, where a Hudson Bomber from the Australian War Memorial sits at the far end.
Fortunately, Australian domestic airports do not require a ticket to pass through security, which is all very quick. A big glass atrium lies on the other side, the giant Unfurling sculpture, also by Andrew Rogers, standing in front of the bright blue sky and airport tarmac and runway beyond. It is the grandest entrance to any Australian airport.
The terminal curves away on either side of the atrium with the aircraft gates and tall angled glass panel windows, giving clear views across the tarmac. To the rear and central areas of the terminal are the walkways, the shops, eateries and airline lounges. Gate 5 is configured for international arrivals and departures, with its own lounge. There are three international destinations: Doha (tag from Melbourne – potentially suspended due to world events), Bali and Fiji.
It’s modern, bright, airy and very clean. As the nation’s capital and seat of the federal government and parliaments, Canberra is very much a Monday to Friday operation. So it’s relatively quiet on the weekend with plenty of empty seating around. There are also big circular cushion seats where you could lie down if you liked.
The open day activities are visible from the terminal with crowds of visitors exploring one of the runways. Sitting on the tarmac are a couple of RAAF Roulette PC-21s and a C-27 Spartan, a Virgin Australia 737-800, a QantasLink A220-300, like I flew on recently, a Hudson bomber, a Grumman Avenger, a DC-8 and the HARS Qantas-liveried Super Constellation amongst others.
After Alex and I explore the terminal for a bit, he and B decide that they don’t want to hang around any longer and would rather ride bikes around Lake Burley Griffin in the sun. So they catch a bus into the city, eat a Mexican lunch, walk all the way to Questacon and hire a Lime bike and a scooter.
Meanwhile, I stay at the airport. Not only do I want to watch the airshow that is about to start, I genuinely like it here in this clean, minimalist space with such a great view. It’s quiet, a place for contemplation, for dreaming about adventures. I watch aircraft come and go, remember times I flew on them from here or elsewhere.
Outside I see the crowd gather towards the edge and notice the two parked RAAF Pilatus PC-21 turboprops spool up. They head down to meet four others which have emerged from the RAAF Fairbairn base across the other side of the runway. The PC-21 is the RAAF’s introductory training aircraft and the Roulettes are their elite acrobatic team. I’ve seen the Roulettes perform before, first in Macchi jet trainers, then the PC-9, but this is the first time up close with the PC-21.
One after another the six Roulettes race down the runway streaming clouds of smoke before rising steeply into the air. For a while they disappear over the rest of Canberra, where the other two spot them, before returning to our area, painting smoke patterns as they fly in formation. Dividing, reforming, rolling and flying almost straight at each other, the eddies in their turbulent smoke trails forming patterns like replicating DNA in the sky.
The show lasts around twenty minutes and then they disappear back to their base. I decide to have some lunch. There are a few options in the terminal, all a bit expensive. A bakery, a coffee shop, a local brewery with burgers and an Asian restaurant. I choose the latter, order a chicken laksa. It’s surprisingly tasty, with a generous amount of chicken, tofu and noodles inside. The closest I can come to an exotic adventure.
While I was eating, the Grumman Avenger was unfolded its wings and is headed out to the tarmac. The World War II vintage US Navy fighter bomber does low passes over the airport and runway, as if strafing them. I feel like I am in a war movie.
When the Avenger returns, its wings quickly fold up again, like a Transformer toy.
The next aircraft to perform looks like a joke when it taxies out to the runway. I isn’t. Paul Bennet’s Wolf Pitts 360 might be a tiny red biplane, but its power and manoeuvrability is incredible. Paul takes it vertical, lets it stall and fall, tumbling straight down before recovering into another smokey arc in the sky.
The last aircraft to perform is the Lockheed Hudson light bomber from World War II. Not quite as manoeuvrable as the other aircraft (although still remarkably so for its size), the Hudson performs passes of the airport before disappear off towards the horizon and its home in Temora.
Despite all the airshow action, the airport continues to operate. There are Link Saab 340 turboprops, QantasLink A220s, E-190s and Dash8 Q400s, a Jetstar A320 and Virgin Australia 737-800 that come and go. Even a corporate Embraer E-145, red like the one we caught between Xian and Yichang in China. A Fiji Airways Boeing 737-MAX8 is our only international visitor.
Watching the aircraft lift-off into the pale northern sky, I think of the times I did the same. Sometimes I just wanted to go home. Other times, when there was still light on the horizon, I would delude myself that I had just begun a long flight to a distant land. I mourn the lack of big jets, or even smaller ones, heading off to Asia or other exotic places.
Playing a game of limited choices, still dreaming of my fantasies, I buy a notebook and Lego set from news@cbr, which, along with a beauty products and a souvenir store, are the only retail shops in this part of the airport. Their electronics selections are limited to headphones, speakers and powerbanks, but a decent, if small, selection of other goods.
I’m ready to head back now. Alex calls me to say that have finished their ride and asks me to pick them up. I return to the hotel and collect the car, drive to the National Art Gallery of Australia, close to where they are. I want to see Linda Lee’s Ouroboros sculpture outside the gallery, but they are already inside when I arrive.
The museum attendants encourage us to see the After the rain exhibition, soon to close, where the curator Tony Albert is handing out free prints. The 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial features 10 big installations of art, ranging from painting and sculptures to multimedia art from Australian Indigenous artists. It is really impressive, sometimes calming, always provoking. I enjoy it all, but when I see the paintings in the House of Namatjira and the Hermannsburg School Collection the colours and landscapes trigger powerful memories of places in Australia I feel like I’ve seen, that I’ve dreamed of seeing. I emerge feeling emotional enough that I do not trust myself to speak to the curator.
Afterwards I walk through Ngura Pulka – Epic Art, with incredible Indigenous dot art and other representations. They too are wonderful. I think I’ve come to like them better than much of the traditional western art.
It is late in the day by the time we wander down to Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros, a big stainless steel curving tunnel with different sized holes in its sides like a field of stars. The exterior reflects the world around it. It is beautiful and perplexing.
Bored of the city, the others want to go to Belconnen for dinner as I have found a Malaysian restaurant there. Driving along the parkways with the low sun in my eyes is a challenge. Belconnen feels like it has much changed from when I used to pass through there as a student.
Most of the shops have already closed on this Saturday night, although the food court and cinema still seem to be alive. We head downstairs to Dewok, which smells very much like a Malaysian eatery. Alex orders a laksa, B has Hainan chicken and I order the nasi lemak and beef rendang. I preferred my lunchtime laksa, but the nasi lemak and beef rendang are both very nice. All in all, pretty decent Malaysian fare.
We stop by a supermarket and K-mart on our way out of the shopping centre. I find the ride back challenging as I am often unsure of which lane to keep and the street lamps are quite dim in Canberra. I have not been enjoying driving in this city. When we make it back to the hotel, I have had enough for the night.
I can’t find anything to watch on the hotel television, until I switch to the ABC Classic Radio digital station as Screen Sounds is on, much to the annoyance of the others. The hot bath is nice, a chance to decompress from a very stimulating day. I think about what I want to write about the airport, realise that it is more than should be in a single post.
The next morning we have another buffet breakfast. I try to eat enough for lunch as well. Then we check out and head home. Lake George presents us with an amazing inland view, as if we are on the coast. Alex swaps into the driving seat towards the end of the Federal Highway and takes us home, with a stop for petrol at Marulan.
Free at home, I think when we arrive, after we pop out again for a late lunch. I cannot motivate myself to write immediately, so I take a walk around the suburb. I see QF1, the big Qantas A380, flying off to Singapore, followed by the Singapore Airlines version. And I dream of being up there, flying off from Canberra Airport towards my first international destination.
However, soon after returning home, I get a call from my mother-in-law saying that her partner, our neighbour, has fallen down near her place and that an ambulance has been called. I go down and find him being treated by the paramedics and neighbours and about to be transported. So I drive her to the hospital and wait with them until MiL wants to go home.
Not a great way to end a holiday. Getting old is no fun. Neither is going back to work tomorrow.