Going where no man (well not recently) has been before

Last week I went on a very interesting tour of the Old Parliament House in Canberra. The tour was built around the lunar landing of 1969, and the activities in Australian government concerned with that event.

We heard some astonishing, but not surprising, excerpts from the Hansard – the records of the parliamentary debates. eg Mr Speaker, if we are receiving tv signals of the landing via Russian satellites, will they be in, well, Russian! General laughter based on embarrassed ignorance.

We visited several sites within the building featured in the brilliant lunar landing film “The Dish”, including the use of the Clerk of the Senate’s office to be the Prime Minister’s office, hoping no one notices that the carpet is red, when the PM’s would be green.

A clear highlight was to be able to go onto the roof, which provided a rare opportunity to see behind the iconic statues facing out from the front of the building, as well as other connections.