Early morning visit: New Parliament House in Canberra, Australia

Australia's new Parliament building was the first place I went to, after arriving in Canberra at 6 AM. New parliament house is 3+ kms from city centre but with nothing else to do at 6 AM, I walked all the way. (I didn't have MyWay card required for city buses and didn't feel the need for taxi)

Walkway to the new Parliament House was not straight forward to detect, but after sometime, figured my way towards the building. At 6.30 AM, it was deserted and I could get decent pictures that don't have too many people in it. New Parliament House is a majestic structure- I have explored it from only 2 sides. Take a look at some pictures of Australia's Parliament House before we continue the discussion

 

Above: Photos of New Parliament house in Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Canberra

At 6.30-7 in the morning, with no one around, new Parliament House is a delight for photographers. The well designed building and its campus can give a photographer everything he/she wishes for-reflections, shadows, angles, perspectives and so on. With my limited photography skills, I walked around and clicked below photos, which I hope you will find interesting. 

 

 Above: Wireframe logo of Australia...

Then I could walk on the edge and go closer to the flag pole. At first I wasn't sure if this is allowed. Then I noticed few visitors walking up and security staff not raising any objections. After that I also went up for a few pics.

 View from this point is great. Whole of Canberra city is visible from here

 Can you spot National War Memorial in below picture? It is at the extreme end.

 The interiors:

The Parliament House in Canberra is open to public, only on the days when parliament is not in session. But it opens only at 9 AM (entry is free). After I was done with my photographs I walked around and came back at 8.45- Now there were lots of tourists crowding the place and a long queue to get in once it opens at 9 AM. I had to catch my bus at 11,25 so I could either stay back, join the queue, get inside the parliament and spend an hour or so exploring the interior (whatever is open to public) or go back to town and explore few other attractions such as Telstra Tower, War Memorial etc. Given the crowd, I won't get clear pictures inside and I had seen interiors of the Victoria Parliament in Melbourne (which was in use before this new Parliament House was constructed).With heavy heart I decided to skip going inside and explore rest of town instead.

It was a morning well spent