Free Things to Do in Canberra: 7 No-Cost

Canberra is one of Australia's best-value cities for free cultural consumption, because the federal government has invested heavily in national cultural institutions that are free to access as a matter of public policy: the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery, the National Museum, the National Library, the National Archives, and the National Portrait Gallery are all free to enter and between them represent some of the finest collections in the southern hemisphere.

Australian War Memorial — the Australian War Memorial (Treloar Crescent, Campbell) is free to enter and is consistently one of Australia's most visited attractions. The Anzac Hall's Lancaster bomber and Japanese midget submarine, the Roll of Honour, the Hall of Memory, and the changing permanent gallery exhibitions provide hours of genuinely moving and historically significant content at no cost. The Last Post ceremony (daily at 4:55pm, free) is one of Canberra's most powerful regular public events.

National Gallery of Australia — the NGA (Parkes Place East, Parliamentary Triangle) is Australia's largest art gallery and free to enter for the permanent collection. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection (largest in the world), the international collection, and the Australian art collection from colonial through contemporary are all free. Major blockbuster loans (Monet, Vermeer, Turner) charge exhibition entry but most of the gallery is always free.

Floriade (September-October) — Floriade, Canberra's annual spring flower festival in Commonwealth Park (September-October), is free to enter and displays one million flowers in formal garden designs across 5 hectares of the lakeside park. It is Australia's largest celebration of spring and a genuinely beautiful free event.

Lake Burley Griffin foreshore — the lake foreshore circuit (35km by bicycle, shorter by selected walk sections) connects the national institutions, the National Capital Exhibition (free, in Regatta Point), and the Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet in a free outdoor experience that takes in the best of Canberra's parliamentary triangle design.

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