Acton, Canberra

About 1 km to the west of the Australian National University campus and the city center, the 50 ha National Botanic Gardens are spread across the slopes of the Black Mountain. In the carefully tended collections representatives of all the important species of Australian flora are to be found. The recreation of a rain forest is particularly impressive.

On McCoy Circuit in Acton is the handsome Art Deco sandstone building (1929-30) occupied by the National Film and Sound Archive. The Archive contains hundreds of thousands of film and television productions and innumerable recordings, radio programs, scripts and printed documents. There are also collections of technical equipment, such as recorders and radio and television apparatus, and historic recordings can be heard and seen in the exhibition area.

Facing the National Film and Sound Archive, on Gordon Street, can be seen the futuristic dome of the Australian Academy of Science. The shallow copper-covered dome, 45 m in diameter, is borne on 16 arches. The building contains a lecture hall and the Academy's various offices (not open to the public). The Academy was founded in 1954 on the model of the British Royal Society to promote the advance of science and honor distinguished scientists.

The Australian National University (ANU) lies in 145 ha of parkland on the north side of Lake Burley Griffin. The University was provided for in Burley Griffin's original plan of 1912, but was not built until 1946. It now consists of two separate but closely associated parts, the Institute of Advanced Studies (research) and the School of General Studies (teaching). The University is worth a visit for the sake of its beautiful grounds, laid out by the ANU's landscape architects and botanists.