Winston, harakeke and muddy socks

Well, I'm in Canberra :) Flights etc. were just fine and the city is lovely. The weather's been fantastic although some of the locals tell me it's cold! Typically it's been -2 deg. C overnight and 20 (ish) deg. C during the day.

I popped in to meet the folk at the WCMT Office here; they're based on the ANU campus. Paul and his team were incredibly welcoming and we had a great chat about the WCMT in the two countries and my Fellowship.

 Paul and I with Winston Churchill by Ante Dabro (2001)

Winston at ANU

As I was walking out of the ANU campus Paul's parting words of "Take any opportunity" presented themselves in the form of the Textiles Department building. I suddenly remembered a good friend of mine, Rokahurihia Ngarimu-Cameron, telling me there was harakeke (Phormium tenax, NZ flax) planted on the campus and she had held raranga wanaga there (weaving workshops). You can see some of Roka's stunning work here. As I chatted to a visiting scholar from South Africa there (screen printing), one of the students, Tara Bromham, came and kindly showed me some of the harakere, turns out she had taken part in the wanaga. You can see some of Tara's work here.

Tara with harakeke

Next stop was a date at the Conservation Department of The Australia War Memorial. Even though my Fellowship is in Forensic textile science I have an interest in materials science in conservation and a friend of mine, Tharron Bloomfield, mentioned I should try to call in on the Conservation Department. I had the opportunity to meet with both textile and painting conservators, specifically Cathy Challenor, Alana Treasure and Jessie Firth. Turns out there was a great connection to some work a MSc graduate of mine Jemma Mitchell has recently done at Cranfield and will be doing in the future for her PhD. There were some objects, including shirt fragments and socks, in the conservation laboratory from the Fromelles Project. We enjoyed chatting about the rarity of recovered buried textiles (moden ones that is). Hoping this visit might lead to some interesting collaboration and some projects for future MSc candidates at Cranfield. Cathy showed me aound the laboratories, fantastic facility. I hope that staff from the AWM might come visit us at Cranfield soon.

 Shirt fragments

Inner and outer sock



I visited The AWM itself and wondered up and down ANZAC parade admiring the various memorials placed there. I think my favourites were the Diggers and the Nurses.

 The Diggers

 Very interested in the overseas visitor

 Inscription by AUS-NZ memorial

 AUS-NZ

 AWM

From AWM to Parliament down ANZAC Parade