A Zed and Two Noughts

Besides the mass of flagpoles scattered round the city, one of the things I've noticed since we've arrived in Canberra is the prevalence of the word 'National'.

It seems if your organisation is in Canberra then putting 'National' in the title of the building/event/company makes it somehow more prestigious. It gives you an excuse for pretending to be substantial while at the same time not really meaning anything at all.

Hence we have The National Gallery, and The National Museum (ok, fair enough)

But there are also some decidedly questionable uses of the phrase;

The 'National' Carrilion (the 55 bells the country clearly turns to when they are in need of a bell recital)

The 'National' Rose Garden (really is this the best Australia can do?)

Radio National (hmmmmm a bit dubious)

There must as a result be a lot of disappointed diplomatic visitors to Canberra who return to their home country thinking they'd seen Australia's biggest and best when in fact they'd just been conned by the misuse of the word 'national'.

I added a new one to my list on Saturday The 'National' Zoo.

It wasn't that the three of us didn't have a good time, but to describe the small wildlife park as the 'National' Zoo, seemed a bit comical. Like most zoos, it contained the usual array of demented animals pacing their cages, narcoleptic lions, and overweight zebras who would be ridiculously easy prey if they ever got within 500miles of their natural environment. At $26 per person (they even wanted us to pay for Audrey) entrance was a bit steep as well.

Still, Audrey seemed to enjoy herself. She always loves the aquarium (I guess it's the bright colours of the fish) and we had trouble dragging her away from the giraffes.

I guess we should be honoured to have the 'National' Zoo just 5 minutes drive from where we live, but I'm not sure we'll become regular visitors there. Even the cage containing kangaroos stood empty and if you can't do kangaroos in an Australian zoo then the 'National' mantle is a bit rich isn't it?

Audrey enjoying the giraffes