Canberra: Women’s History Walking Tour & Local Stories

4.95

(123 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I didn’t expect to start my day in Canberra feeling like I was eavesdropping on history. Our guide—Sarah, who had this dry wit—met us outside the Museum of Australian Democracy. She handed out these little postcards (I still have mine somewhere) and led us through corridors where you could almost smell old paper and something faintly musty, like secrets. She pointed out a plaque about a woman I’d never heard of—apparently she rewrote parts of the constitution. “Most people miss her,” Sarah said, tapping it with her pen. I felt sort of embarrassed I’d missed her too.

We paused at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and the mood shifted; Sarah lowered her voice as we stood under gum trees, smoke from someone’s nearby campfire drifting our way. She talked about the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and honestly, it felt more real than anything I’d read in textbooks. At Reconciliation Place, she told us how women shaped not just policies but whole movements. Someone in our group asked if any of them were still alive—Sarah grinned and said, “A few are still stirring things up.”

The National Portrait Gallery was next—faces everywhere, but Sarah only stopped at certain ones. She told us which women had designed parts of Canberra itself. The High Court looked massive in the sunlight; we sat on its steps while she described a judge who’d dismissed a government (I had no idea that happened). My legs were getting tired by then, but we all perked up when she mentioned coffee at Bookplate inside the National Library. That café smelled like fresh bread and espresso—one of those small comforts that sticks with you.

By the time we reached Lake Burley Griffin, the wind picked up and made my eyes water a bit—not sure if it was just the breeze or something else. Sarah shared one last story about women who helped shape the city’s skyline. It wasn’t what I thought a history tour would be; it felt like being let in on something personal. I still think about that view across the lake sometimes.