I was born and raised in Canberra. Canberra is a small, planned city about 3 hours south west of Sydney. It is also the national capital of Australia. It features a lot of open land with grass and trees, nothing can be built on the hills so they remain bushland; it has several man-made lakes, lots of national buildings, a well-educated population and is largely unpolluted. It is about 2 hours drive from the beach, and 2 hours drive from the snowfields of New South Wales.

Some useful sites about Canberra
Canberra Tourism - This is updated often as it represents Canberra to people who might like to visit. It has general info, plus the myriad events that happen here year round.

National Capital site - This is the offical government site about Canberra, and has more info about the planning and building of Canberra, and how it operates now.

Virtual Canberra - If you have a big powerful computer and a good net connection, this might be worth a visit. It shows you panoramic shots of the lake and official buildings, but it can be slow to load due to its size. Very pretty.

Lonely Planet Canberra - This is good stuff, visitor info plus opinions. There are pictures and links, and all up as a Canberra native I think it does a good job of explaining Canberra.

I attended the Australian National University, where I did Classics, Literature and Philosophy.

The family has an apple farm on the edge of Canberra. I used to live in a little house on the farm. I now live a bit further out, on the hills to the East in a rural area.

My old "Hovel" on the family farm	My house looking imposing	Young kookaburra posing

The house is a family building project, and we are now working on a bit of landscaping. The views are stunning; I can see back over Canberra and the alpine mountain range behind it, and the top of the mountain range on the coastal escarpment in the opposite direction.

This mist is common in Winter.	My House on the day of the January 2003 Canberra fires...	...and in an early snowfall

The weather up on my hill is pretty severe; it is windy most of the time, but for some reason the rain seems to miss us quite often. It's a very dry and hostile environment for growing things, but the trees and other things we are growing manage to survive.

The view to the North

I get to see some amazing sunsets, and am host to a large number of kangaroos (and assorted birds, an echidna, snakes and too many rabbits).

Sunset as seen from my house.	Roos practising fighting at sunset...	...still at it in the AM. From my bathroom window.

We also have a number of chihuahuas.

Bats & her very own chicken wing	Herbert posing	Miffy dominating the district	Caesar working hard

Bushwalking is a very popular activity in Australia, and living in Canberra enables people to get out and into the bushland very easily. Many people are members of bushwalking clubs; walks are advertised in newsletters, led by club members with experience in the route, and these activities then branch out into other outdoors clubs, for skiing, kayaking, XC skiing and camping, canyoning, caving and bike riding. This is a good site with some nice bushwalking info and pictures.