Home page

Autumn in Canberra: There is no better time to be in the National Capital. The Australian Capital Territory offers a range of opportunities of educational, scenic and gastronomic value. Hidden in the leafy streets is a thriving modern city with stylish restaurants, bars and boutique shopping. In autumn, the trees and gardens of the national capital cloak the city in crimson, russet and golden hues. The annual Canberra Balloon Festival, the southern hemisphere's biggest hot air balloon fiesta) adds colour and shapes to the sky and over the Easter weekend, walkers will participate in the 15th Canberra Two Day Medal Walk. Enjoy the produce of the district's developing fine wine culture, when some 30 award-winning cool-climate wineries stage the Wine Harvest Festival in late March.

We are very pleased to announce that the major overseas speakers at this year's ASM will be Professor Ron Dubois, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK and Professor Jack A Elias, Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, USA. Ron and Jack are recognised world leaders in respiratory medicine and will be presenting the cutting edge of developments in pulmonary fibrosis and airways disease respectively.

Our Wunderly Orator this year is Professor Stephen Zubrick, Head of the Division of Population Sciences at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. Dr Surinder Birring, an international expert in cough research, will be featured in the Cough Symposium and Dr Darryl Knight makes a welcome return to update us on his current research from Vancouver. As ever, the meeting will feature numerous leading Australian presenters in the major plenaries including Professor Judy Black, Professor Charles Mackay, Associate Professor Gary Anderson and Dr Steve Mutsaers. A special symposium dealing with advanced care planning, ethics and end of life issues will feature Dr Christine MacDonald, Dr Karen Detering and Dr Bill Silvester. Professor Robyn O'Hehir will be featured in a combined Special Interest Group session with the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy.

Breakfast sessions will be held each morning and concurrent oral and poster sessions will cover the Special Interest Group topics. The meeting will be preceded by the highly successful Advanced Trainee and Research Courses, ALF Lung Cancer Consultative Group session and Corporate Satellite Symposia and for the first time will be immediately followed by a new afternoon session run by the COPD Trials Network. The Conference Dinner will be held in the Great Hall at Parliament House, a venue not to be missed, with a lively entertainment program sure to have you up and dancing.

We believe the meeting will truly provide something for everyone and we look forward to seeing you all in Canberra.

Ten capital ideas
• Spend a day at the Australian War Museum (www.awm.gov.au).
• Drive through Reid, Ainslie or Forrest to see the spectacular autumn colours, the results of gardens planned by Canberra's earliest landscape designers.
• Challenge your senses. Try some hands-on scientific experiences at Questacon (www.questacon.edu.au), enjoy the unusual displays at the Sound and Screen Museum (www.screensound.gov.au) or trace the nation's development and art at the National Museum (www.nma.gov.au), the National Gallery (www.nga.gov.au) and the National Library (www.nla.gov.au) .
• Take a tour with an elite athlete to see the Australian Institute of Sport (www.ais.gov.au) from the inside and learn how our champions develop
• Play golf on one of several top Canberra golf courses (www.ausgolf.com.au/actcourses.htm)
• Walk to Yankee Hat , an Aboriginal rock shelter with interesting artwork in Namadgi National Park (www.environment.act.gov.au/bushparksandreserves).
• Tour Parliament House, the meeting place of our nation, and the restored rose gardens of old Parliament House (www.oph.gov.au).
• Drink in the flavours and tastes of the main shopping and dining venues (canberra.citysearch.com.au/section/food_wine/)
• Shop for local art and craft at the award-winning Old Bus Depot Markets (www.obdm.com.au) on a Sunday.
• Admire the miniature buildings and gorgeous flowers and greenery gardens at Cockington Green Gardens (www.cockington-green.com.au).