19 October 2011

Buses for Queen watching

| johnboy
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Territory And Municipal Services have a guide to avoiding a traffic snarl with royal viewing tomorrow:

The best viewing spots will be on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin as the royal couple will be transferred by water from Government House to the Floriade site.

ACTION’s Blue Rapid 300 series (300, 312, 313, 314, 315, 318 and 319) depart from City Bus Station (platform one), Woden Bus Station (platform 9) and Tuggeranong Bus Station (platform 8) every five minutes from 7 am and travel down Commonwealth Avenue.

Other services that access Commonwealth Avenue are routes 2, 3 and 6.

While the buses will stop at both the Albert Hall bus stop and the Floriade bus stop, people are advised to get off at the Albert Hall bus stop. This will enable people to easily walk to the best vantage point along the shoreline from Lennox Gardens (near the Hyatt Hotel) to Commonwealth Place (in front of the National Library and Questacon).

To return home or to continue the journey to work people can then get back onto an ACTION bus at either of the two stops.

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creative_canberran4:04 pm 20 Oct 11

qbngeek said :

creative_canberran said :

Another note though, any idea where they got the Queen’s Range Rover from? I had assumed they’d use one of the AFP’s new armoured VIP BMWs or the older Statesman fleet, didn’t know we used Range Rovers locally.
I dare say they did it out of patriotism to Britain… except Jaguar-Rover is owned by the Indian Tata group.

Having not seen what,if any, number plates are on it I would hazard a guess that it came wth her as I beleive Range Rover is her car of choice.

BTW, Range Rover is a Land Rover company and all the cars in the Land/Range Rover family are still made in the UK and the company is headquartered there, TATA is merely a parent company. They are more british than Holdens are Australian.

That’s true. And for that matter Mini is still made at the original Midlands plant despite being BMW owned, as is the BMW owned Rolls.

According to Wikipedia (yes, best I could do), her official state car is 2002 Bentley Limo. For less than official transport, she uses an armoured Jaguar similar to the British PM’s (and New Zealand GG for trivia sake). She uses the Range Rover for “rural” occasions like attending country fairs occasionally and on private royal estates.

So I know Canberra isn’t big, but we’re not a big hick country town FFS Liz!

creative_canberran said :

Another note though, any idea where they got the Queen’s Range Rover from? I had assumed they’d use one of the AFP’s new armoured VIP BMWs or the older Statesman fleet, didn’t know we used Range Rovers locally.
I dare say they did it out of patriotism to Britain… except Jaguar-Rover is owned by the Indian Tata group.

Having not seen what,if any, number plates are on it I would hazard a guess that it came wth her as I beleive Range Rover is her car of choice.

BTW, Range Rover is a Land Rover company and all the cars in the Land/Range Rover family are still made in the UK and the company is headquartered there, TATA is merely a parent company. They are more british than Holdens are Australian.

akinky said :

its not like assasination attempts are a new phenomenon – prince alfred was famously shot in sydney in 1867 (he survived), in 1970 someone plotted to derail the royal train (it failed).

Given whos in line to replace her, I think she’s pretty safe.

akinky said :

How absurd that public can only watch from the other side of the lake. when i was younger at anzac day in canbeera i remember the queen walking down the line of troops and members of the public, shaking hands and chatting.

its not like assasination attempts are a new phenomenon – prince alfred was famously shot in sydney in 1867 (he survived), in 1970 someone plotted to derail the royal train (it failed).

the only thing that has changed is that it is a paranoid and insecure world that we live in today.

Not entirely true. My daughter and I were driving home down Cotter Road yesterday at about 6:40pm. We noticed a couple of TV cameras, a small crowd (perhaps 40-50 at that stage), a cop and the corner of Dunrossil drive with a barrier of metre-high nylon fabric round star pickets along the gutter. Realising that the Queen was likely lobbing in we stopped about 20m down the road, jumped out and walked up to the barrier, waited 10 minutes when the Governor General came past, waited another 5 and had the Queen’s entourage roll past too. We were no more than 6m away from her, and although she was admittedly on the other side of the Range Rover (we got Prince Phillip’s side) his window was open. Had she been looking our way we could have swapped greetings. There was no security check, no hustling us along when we parked (and the motorcade went past our car) – nothing but a bit of nylon fabric between them and us. And we were home in less than 10 minutes after she’d driven by. Very satisfactory arrangement all round.

🙂

creative_canberran10:45 am 20 Oct 11

akinky said :

How absurd that public can only watch from the other side of the lake. when i was younger at anzac day in canbeera i remember the queen walking down the line of troops and members of the public, shaking hands and chatting.

its not like assasination attempts are a new phenomenon – prince alfred was famously shot in sydney in 1867 (he survived), in 1970 someone plotted to derail the royal train (it failed).

the only thing that has changed is that it is a paranoid and insecure world that we live in today.

A couple of observations, firstly, anyone notice yesterday how much they’ve upped the armour on C1 since Howard and I think even Rudd.
It’s concealed well and you don’t notice from a side no view typical on the new. But front on view yesterday on the tarmac revealed the windscreen and windows have a black border inches in width and the transparent part is much smaller. Neither the GG Statesman nor the Rover for the Queen had this, not hard to tell whose considered a greater hazard.
ANU security expert on the news last night said Queen is only a medium level risk. And from the maps I’ve seen, the boat will go quite close to the National Library side of the foreshore and Lennox Gardens, both viewing areas so they’re not keeping a huge distance.

Another note though, any idea where they got the Queen’s Range Rover from? I had assumed they’d use one of the AFP’s new armoured VIP BMWs or the older Statesman fleet, didn’t know we used Range Rovers locally.
I dare say they did it out of patriotism to Britain… except Jaguar-Rover is owned by the Indian Tata group.

akinky said :

the only thing that has changed is that it is a paranoid and insecure world that we live in today.

Brought to us by the good old US of A.

How absurd that public can only watch from the other side of the lake. when i was younger at anzac day in canbeera i remember the queen walking down the line of troops and members of the public, shaking hands and chatting.

its not like assasination attempts are a new phenomenon – prince alfred was famously shot in sydney in 1867 (he survived), in 1970 someone plotted to derail the royal train (it failed).

the only thing that has changed is that it is a paranoid and insecure world that we live in today.

Gotta say, big credit to JB for being so positive about the Queen’s visit. She may be an anachronism, but – Uber-celebrity or what!
And the pollys’ responses are very telling. Urbane republican Malcolm Turnbull acknowledging the second Elizabethan Age – while gauche, no-clue Andrew Barr adds “hates the Queen” to his “hates history, hates gardens” moniker!

the advice is to be in position by 10.30am

devils_advocate4:49 pm 19 Oct 11

THis is going to cause one almight headache attempting to get carparking in the parkes area, isn’t it?

troll-sniffer4:26 pm 19 Oct 11

Anyone got a scheduled time the royal wake will exit the timbered sides of the Admiral’s boat thingy?

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