first royal visit to australia

The 1954 Royal Tour of Queen Elizabeth II

  Queen Elizabeth II was the first, and to date, the only reigning British monarch to visit Australia. When the 27 year old sailed into Sydney harbour on 3 February 1954, she practically stopped the nation. Her arrival at Farm Cove, where Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag 165 years before her, attracted an estimated 1 million onlookers in a city with a population of 1,863,161 (1954 ABS Census). Those who couldn’t be there in person could listen to ABC radio’s nation-wide coverage of the historic occasion. Amalgamated Wireless Australia (AWA) helped make history when it filmed the Queen setting foot on Australian soil and relayed the footage to the Spastic Centre in Mosman – thus the royal arrival became the first televised event in Australia. 

The 1954 royal tour was a much-anticipated event. Planning had commenced in 1949 for King George VI (Elizabeth’s father) to visit Australia and New Zealand. However, a coded telegram received in October 1951 relayed the disappointing news that due to the king’s ill health and an impending operation, he would be unable to visit the antipodes as planned. Instead, the then Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, would come in his place. Her Royal Highness was at a safari lodge in Kenya, en route to Australia in 1952, when she received the news of her father’s death. She made haste back to England and by the time she came to Australia in 1954, the princess was our queen.

At the time, the royal tour of 1954 was the single biggest event ever planned in Australia. It was organised in the days before email, facsimile and mobile telephones. Official printed programs stated that all those responsible for an event were to synchronise their watches with the A.B.C. time signals at 9am each day. During the Queen’s eight-week tour of Australia, the only glitch was an outbreak of poliomyelitis in Western Australia, which saw the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, intervene to insist that the royal party sleep on SS Gothic and eat only food prepared on the ship (Ferrier, 1954, n.p.). 

The fierce February sun did not prevent Her Majesty from wearing her elbow length white gloves and decorative hats. Though the Australian sunlight is glaringly bright compared to England, she was rarely seen in sunglasses.

The royals visited 57 towns and cities during the 58 days they spent in Australia. They traversed the country by plane, train, ship and car from Cairns in the north, Broken Hill in the west to Hobart in the south. Their children, Prince Charles (aged five years) and Princess Anne (aged three years) did not accompany them on the exhausting trip.

During their ten days in New South Wales, they attended 28 major programs, with events scheduled for the morning, afternoon and evening.  Queen Elizabeth’s days varied from the cultural – watching a surf life-saving demonstration at Bondi Beach; to the civic – addressing 107,000 school children at three outdoor venues; to the constitutional – opening a session of parliament. The crowds were tumultuous, the press was effusive in its praise and every street the royals paraded along was festooned with decorations. 

The Library holds an extensive collection of original photographs of the visit which capture many official and candid moments. Below is a small selection - you can view three albums of photographs through our catalogue .  Dr George Bell donated a collection of photographs from the Queen's visit to Broken Hill, which have also been digitised.

Collection of photographs of the Royal Tour, 1954

The State Library’s collections relating to the 1954 royal tour include invitations, entry tickets, commemorative school exercise book covers, orders of service, menus and timetables. These ephemeral items would usually be thrown away after the event. They show the detailed planning that went into the royal visit, which aimed to give as many people as possible the opportunity to see ‘their queen’. 

Since her first visit in 1954, Queen Elizabeth II has visited Australia another 15 times. 

The Library would like to thank volunteer Anne Munro for typing all the original hand-written captions for the photographs.

Ephemera items from the Royal Tour, 1954

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SNAPSHOT: The 1954 Royal Tour

Princess Elizabeth was en route to Australia, via Kenya, when she received news in February 1952 of the premature death of her father, 56-year-old King George VI. She hastily abandoned her trip but visited Australia two years later as the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II, the first and only reigning British monarch ever to do so. That 1954 visit was the first of 16 royal tours by the Queen to Australia but was, by every measure, the most successful – and resoundingly so. Royal fever gripped the postwar nation, which seemed to fall, en masse, under the spell of the young queen. During the two-month sojourn it’s estimated that more than 7 million Australians – 70 per cent of the population – attempted to see Elizabeth and her consort, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

In Sydney, 1 million residents reportedly thronged the harbour foreshore and lined the city streets, waiting for hours just to glimpse the royal couple following their arrival on 3 February 1954 at Farm Cove aboard the royal barge.

During the following 58 days, the pair visited 57 towns and cities across the country on an exhausting program of public engagements and community and sporting events. They saw natural wonders such as the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains and the Great Barrier Reef, and watched surf carnivals and gymnastics displays. They met Indigenous leaders, war veterans, farmers and factory workers and hordes of schoolchildren. Australia presented itself as a confident and vigorous young nation with seemingly boundless resources. It was forward-looking while still valuing its strong bonds with the motherland.

It wasn’t until the Queen’s next tour, in 1963, that Prime Minister Menzies famously quoted the poetic phrase “I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die”. But he was already feeling effusive in 1954, and avowed his most profound and passionate feelings of loyalty and devotion to the throne in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald .

Formal celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – 70 years on the throne – the first British monarch to reach such a milestone, will take place in the UK across the long weekend 2–5 June 2022. Among the events and celebrations here in Australia, the Queen’s Jubilee Program is providing up to $15.1 million in grants to eligible groups and organisations for community-based tree-planting programs.

For more information, see The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022 .

All photographs by Max Dupain/Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales

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16 visits over 57 years: reflecting on Queen Elizabeth II’s long relationship with Australia

Associate Professor of English, Flinders University

Disclosure statement

Giselle Bastin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Flinders University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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“Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth” has died. Given her advanced years, this has long been expected, yet it still seems incredible this woman who has been Australia’s queen for the duration of most Australians’ lives is no longer with us.

While the focus of the formalities and ceremony of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II will centre on London and the UK, there is no doubt it will be keenly observed by many Australians.

The queen liked Australia and Australians. She came here 16 times throughout her reign and was, famously, on her way to our shores in 1952 when she learned her father had passed on and she was now queen.

Her visits to Australia – from her first in 1954 through to her last in 2011 – offer a snapshot of the changing relationship Australians have had with their sovereign and with the monarchy.

An enthusiastic nation

The queen’s 1954 tour took place during a time described by historian Ben Pimlott as the age of “ British Shintoism ”. Deference to the Crown was paramount in Britain and the Commonwealth, and many Australians were madly enthusiastic about their queen.

After her arrival at Farm Cove in Sydney on February 3 1954, Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to set foot on Australian soil. The royal tour lasted nearly two months and consisted of a gruelling schedule taking in visits to every state and territory apart from the Northern Territory.

During the tour, the queen greeted over 70,000 ex-service men and women; drove in cavalcades that took in massive crowds; attended numerous civic receptions; and opened the Australian Parliament in Canberra. The tour saw Elizabeth travel 10,000 miles by air and 2,000 miles by road – including 207 trips by car and by appointed royal trains.

It is estimated as much as 75% of the population saw the queen and Prince Philip during this tour.

No Australian prime minister has ever had a reception on this scale or exposure to so many of the country’s citizens.

A “new” and prosperous country

During her first two tours in 1954 and 1963, the Australia laid-out for display for the queen was depicted as having gone from being a small colonial settlement to a thriving economy that had ridden to prosperity “ on the sheep’s back ”.

The queen was treated to endless displays of sheep shearing, surf carnivals, wood chopping, whip cracking, and mass displays of dancing and singing by school children. Federal and state dignitaries, mayors and civic leaders from across the political divide jostled to meet and be seen with her; the country’s florists were emptied of flowers for the hundreds of bouquets presented to her by dozens of shy, nervous school children nudged gently forward by awe-struck parents.

During the early tours, Aboriginal Australians were kept at a discreet distance. Apart from a demonstration of boomerang and spear throwing, the closest the queen came to experiencing anything of Indigenous Australian culture was a ballet performed by the Arts Council Ballet titled Corroboree, with no Aboriginal dancers but dancers with blackened faces.

During the 1970 visit, the queen witnessed the re-enactment of Captain James Cook’s arrival at Botany Bay, with Cook and his crew meeting “the resistance of the Aborigines with a volley of musket fire”.

By 1973, Indigenous Australians were given a more significant role in the royal tours. Aboriginal actor Ben Blakeney, one of Bennelong’s descendants, gave the official welcome during the opening of the Sydney Opera House, and the then unknown actor David Gulpilil was among those performing a ceremonial dance.

Invited guest, not ruler of the land

As early as the 1963 tour, the nation-wide royal fervour had dimmed a little. The 1963 visit witnessed smaller crowds and fewer mass public events. When Prime Minister Robert Menzies courted the queen with the now-famous line, “I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die”, the ensuing blushes – including the queen’s own – reflected many Australians’ growing sense of embarrassment at public displays and unquestioning expressions of deference.

Despite this, Menzies’ displays of public ardour saw him being granted The Order of the Thistle shortly after, a bestowal which must surely remain the envy of some subsequent prime ministers.

The 1977 Silver Jubilee and 1988 Australian bicentenary visits perhaps marked the end of a period of royal tours as overt celebrations of Australia’s ties to Britain. This new flavour of tours positioned the sovereign as an invited guest to an independent, modern and multi-cultural nation.

On her 10th tour in 1986, the queen returned to sign the Australia Act , which brought to an end the ability of the UK to create laws for Australia.

Her role as our sovereign subtly transformed from cutting ribbons and opening Parliament to signing the documents that slowly, by degrees, contributed to the cutting of Australia’s ties to the UK and the Crown.

A question of the republic

By the 12th tour in 1992, the cost of the queen’s visits to Australia were increasingly scrutinised by a public feeling largely indifferent about the royal family. The prime minister of the day, Paul Keating, was seen not so much as an entranced liege lord revelling in the opportunity to see his sovereign “passing by” as one who instead – unthinkingly – committed an act of lèse majesté by placing his bare hand on the royal back and waist as he guided her through the crowd.

The gloves, it seemed, were coming off.

The queen made it clear in her last visits to our shores that whether or not Australia should become a republic was a decision for its own citizens to make. Her official announcement after she learned of the result of the 1999 Republic Referendum confirmed this:

I have always made it clear that the future of the Monarchy in Australia is an issue for the Australian people and them alone to decide, by democratic and constitutional means. … My family and I would, of course, have retained our deep affection for Australia and Australians everywhere, whatever the outcome.

In the last decades of her life, the queen retained the affection of many. Her popularity seemed to grow in line with Australians’ increased disenchantment with their home-grown political leaders: the former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Julia Gillard are right to have sensed that any discussion about an Australian republic would have to wait until after Elizabeth II’s death.

Queen Elizabeth II reigned across seven decades and her tours to Australia served as a marker of Australia’s changing relationship with the Crown as well as with its own colonial past and national identity.

Almost certainly, Elizabeth II’s reign as the stalwart, loyal, dutiful, and most cherished and admired of “Glorianas” is one we are unlikely ever to see again.

Correction: the article previously stated the queen was on her way to Australia in 1953 when she learned of her father’s death. This has been corrected to 1952.

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The Queen and us: Australia’s long relationship with Elizabeth II

Her 1954 visit was the first to Australia by a reigning monarch and while the country has changed, respect for Elizabeth had largely remained

I t was scorching hot on the Dubbo oval when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the western New South Wales town on 10 February 1954. A large crowd turned out to see them. Students stood in rows with their teachers. The pageantry had been months in the planning but it was the heat that Kate Crawford, then a primary school student, remembered most.

Crawford and her classmates donned a special uniform for the occasion and waited on the oval, “standing in the scorching heat for hours”, while town dignitaries hosted the young Queen in a specially constructed podium in the shade.

There was not much time for sightseeing. In their 58-day tour, the first Elizabeth had made since her coronation and the first visit by any reigning monarch to Australia, the royal couple visited 57 towns and cities, including every capital city except Darwin.

They were greeted upon arrival in Sydney harbour by a crowd of 1 million people – more than half the city’s population at the time. It was the first televised event in Australian history. Newspaper coverage described “unprecedented chaos in transport movement” as hundreds of thousands of people lined the route taken by the royals and stopped traffic. It was, the Muswellbrook Chronicle proclaimed the next day, an “unofficial holiday”.

The tour was the single biggest event planned in Australia to date. More than 100,000 schoolchildren were recruited, in their uniforms, to hear the Queen speak and the NSW education department issued a souvenir exercise book for the royal visit.

In the northern Victorian town of Mildura, the Sunraysia Daily reported at the time, about 200 people fainted from the heat while waiting for the Queen and Prince Philip to arrive.

An estimated 7 million Australians – 70% of the population at the time – turned out to see the 27-year-old monarch at some point in the tour. The Queen, in turn, seemed fond of Australia – even Queensland, which had presented her with 500 cases of tinned pineapples for her wedding in 1947 , was included on the lengthy itinerary.

It was the first of 16 visits the Queen made to Australia during her 70-year reign. Three generations of Australians have memories of standing on tippy-toes, in their crispest school uniform, to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty.

The visits got shorter and the crowds smaller as time passed and Australia’s relationship to the monarchy and the British empire changed. But even as the Commonwealth fell out of favour, the Queen herself remained popular – for the most part.

She was the patron of 27 Australian organisations, including the RSL, the Scouts and the Royal Melbourne hospital. Her eldest son, King Charles III, attended two terms at an Australian boarding school, the Timbertop program at Geelong Grammar.

Her visits were a mix of royal pomp and acute awkwardness. In 1988, she stood alongside the then-prime minister, Bob Hawke, a staunch republican, to watch the running of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Their political differences were overcome by a shared love of horse racing.

In 1999 Australia doubled down on its commitment to the crown: 55% of voters, asked at a referendum whether they would support appointing an Australian head of state, voted no.

In 2011, at the time of Queen Elizabeth’s last visit to Australia, the actor Hugh Jackman remarked : “Even the republicans, the ones in Australia who want to see Australia move on, still have great respect and love for the Queen. I’ve never heard anyone say different.”

In 2019, the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who led the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) in the lead-up to the referendum, said a new campaign should not be staged until Queen Elizabeth’s reign had come to an end .

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, a longtime supporter of making Australia a republic, has created the office of assistant minister for the republic after his Labor government was elected in May. Its election platform included support for an Australian head of state and Albanese told a 2019 dinner hosted by ARM that “a modern Australian republic is an idea whose time has come”.

Still, on the occasion of her platinum jubilee, Albanese said Australia held Queen Elizabeth “in respect and affection” and joked that his own birth may have been delayed by his mother’s determination to see the Queen on her 1963 tour. But he added that the nation was “no longer what it was at the dawn of [Elizabeth’s] reign”.

“No longer parent and young upstart, we stand as equals,” he said.

During the seven decades of her reign, Australia went from a proud vassal of the British empire to an independent nation in all but name that began to reckon with its colonial beginnings.

In 1970, at the bicentennial of the arrival of Captain Cook on Australian shores, protesters threw wreaths into Botany Bay where the Queen was sailing in her royal yacht to watch a reenactment of British soldiers firing muskets on the Gweagal people.

The protests and petitions continued for the next five decades and in 1999 a delegation of senior Aboriginal figures met with the Queen in Buckingham Palace, the first Aboriginal people to do so since 1793.

Last month, Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab-Wurrung woman, was asked to apologise after referring to the Queen as a coloniser while making her oath to parliament .

Criticism was not confined to the royal family’s colonial legacy. The release in 2020 of the palace letters – the correspondence between Buckingham Palace and the governor general Sir John Kerr about the dismissal of the prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975 – led to the Queen being accused of political interference, even though Kerr had carefully not informed the palace directly of his decision until after it was done, to protect the Queen.

Buckingham Palace denied the Queen had a role in Whitlam’s dismissal and said she had demonstrated “support for Australia” throughout her reign but maintained the letters should not have been released.

“While the royal household believes in the longstanding convention that all conversations between prime ministers, governor generals and the Queen are private, the release of the letters … confirms that neither Her Majesty nor the royal household had any part to play in Kerr’s decision to dismiss Whitlam ,” a statement released at the time said.

Had the letters been released earlier, the Queen’s popularity in Australia may have cooled. By 2020, with Queen Elizabeth in her 90s, the public response was muted. Elizabeth had been queen for longer than most Australians had been alive: she was immovable.

Albanese, speaking after news broke of the monarch’s death , said Australia had lost a “wise and enduring presence”.

“Through the noise and turbulence of the years, she embodied and exhibited a timeless decency and an enduring calm,” he said.

“This time of mourning will pass but the deep respect and warm regard in which Australians have always held for her will never fade.”

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Royal Romance

The Royal Romance exhibition examined Australia's passionate response to Queen Elizabeth II's first visit in 1954. The tour was a high-point of royal adulation in Australia. It was one of the nation’s last great pre-television events.

Royal Romance was previously on show at the National Museum of Australia from February to October 2004.

In our collection

1954 Royal Tour of Australia

On 3 February 1954 the royal barge pulled into Farm Cove, Sydney. The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II stepped ashore, becoming the first reigning British monarch to visit Australia. Australians responded passionately to the young Queen, turning out in their millions to catch a brief glimpse of their sovereign.

For the next 2 months, until her departure from Fremantle, the Queen's visit provided Australians with a chance to celebrate and demonstrate their loyalty. Almost three-quarters of the Australian population took advantage of the opportunity, seeing the Queen at least once during the visit.

Royal Romance takes a look back on this, the most celebrated of royal tours. Decades later the passionate response of Australians to the Queen's 1954 visit requires some explanation.

Changing role of the monarchy

The royal tour by the Queen in 2000 attracted considerable interest, but not the mass excitement of her first visit. In 1954 Australians overwhelmingly supported remaining a constitutional monarchy.

By the 1990s the mood had shifted to the point where becoming a republic was the focus of major public debate. While Australians rejected the 1999 referendum proposal for Australia to become a republic, the proposal revealed a fundamental shift in Australia's attitude to the monarchy.

In developing Royal Romance , the National Museum explored the response of Australians to the Queen, why some people were so infatuated with her 50 years ago and whether we have fallen out of love since. The exhibition also examined the role of the monarchy as the living embodiment of Australia's British heritage. It explored the link between the Crown and the people and the way in which the Queen can become part of our daily lives even though she lives half a world away.

Australia on show

The 1954 Royal Tour of Australia provided Australians with a chance to celebrate their country’s achievements and potential. What the Queen was shown, and the mass display of loyalty by the Australian people who turned out in such numbers to see her, has even greater significance when viewed in the social, political and economic context of the times.

Australia on parade

During their 2-month stay in Australia the Queen and Prince Philip were shown a bewildering variety of people, places and products.

Australia was displayed as a youthful and vigorous place, a land of endless resources and possibilities. There were displays of youngsters en masse in most major cities. Children danced, sang, performed gymnastics and presented flowers to the Queen.

The royal couple met servicemen, Indigenous people, civic dignitaries and sportsmen; attended garden parties, horse races at Randwick and Flemington, a cricket match in Adelaide; and a surf lifesaving carnival in Sydney. They visited rural Australia, metropolitan Australia, sailed the waters of the Great Barrier Reef and visited the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains.

Industry and resources

The postwar shift from production to consumption was only just beginning in Australia. Increasing numbers of women were returning to the workforce and adding to households’ disposable income. The public imagination was still dominated by images of Australia as a land of resources and Australia was still an economy based heavily on primary industry.

In Newcastle the royal party visited the steel foundry and met with workers. At Dubbo, the itinerary included a pastoral review with woodchopping demonstrations and sheep shearing contests. In Victoria the Queen and Duke met workers at the brown coal mine at Yallourn.

The Duke visited the rocket range at Woomera to see the latest in Anglo-Australian rocket technology. Although signs of Britain’s decline as a world power were already evident, most people were happy to ignore them. The explosion of the Anglo-Australian atomic bomb at Maralinga was not only seen to have put Australia on the modern technology map, but also confirmed Britain’s role as one of the few nuclear powers on the globe.

Commemorative ceremonies

The Queen also visited war memorials. In 1954 veterans from the First and Second World Wars were joined by veterans from the Boer War and Sudan Campaign. In Melbourne the Queen opened the forecourt of the Shrine of Remembrance, while the Melbourne Cricket Ground was the scene of a display by massed ex-servicemen.

Queen Elizabeth also opened the third session of Parliament in Canberra.

Queen on show

During the 1954 royal tour, Australia was on show, but so too was the Queen. In political terms, the particular relevance of the Queen’s first visit was set by the Statute of Westminster, issued in 1931.

Prompted by the governments of Canada and South Africa, the Statute gave the Dominions of the British Empire the chance to establish themselves as independent nations of equal status to Britain. This formal independence changed the role of the Crown, which now became the foremost symbol of unity among the independent peoples of the British Commonwealth.

However, successive Australian governments did not see fit to ratify the Statute until 1942, when British power east of Suez had collapsed at Singapore and the fear of Japanese invasion gripped the Australian nation.

Official war artist Ivor Hele was commissioned to paint the Queen opening the third session of the 20th parliament on 15 February 1954. An artist with a strong sense of history and a talent for portraiture, was ideally suited for the commission.

Show of loyalty at a time of conflict

The 1954 visit gave Australians the chance to reaffirm their connections with Britain and for Britain to witness scenes of loyalty from Australia. These fulsome expressions of loyalty must have provided great comfort for some in London who feared that Australia was being lost to the Americans and may have given some illusory hope that the British Empire was still a force in world politics.

Two years later the Suez crisis underlined the loss of British power and highlighted American ascendency. From that point on, Britain and Australia were clearly subordinate allies of the United States in the Cold War confrontation between communism and capitalism.

That conflict was something that the Queen didn’t see during her tour, but it was widely present in Australian society. Chifley’s Labor government had crushed the striking miners of New South Wales in 1949 and Menzies tried, unsuccessfully, to outlaw the Communist Party of Australia in 1951.

Although this attempt failed in the short-term, the communist issue split the labour movement, ensuring that the 1950s are popularly remembered as a period of Menzies-inspired conservatism.

The 1954 tour was a high-point of royal adulation in Australia. It was one of the nation’s last great pre-television events.

Despite the continuing relevance of the constitutional monarchy in Australia’s political system, the royal tour in 2000 generated far less enthusiasm. It is difficult to imagine a visit of the scale, excitement and fervour seen in 1954, occurring in today’s Australia.

Exhausting itinerary

The Queen’s tour was comprehensive and she visited every state and territory, except the Northern Territory, from her arrival on 3 February to her departure on 1 April. The royal party was based in major cities for most of their stay, but made numerous side trips to other locations.

New South Wales Sydney: 3–18 February, Newcastle: 9 February, Lismore: 9–10 February, Casino: 10 February, Dubbo: 10 February, Wollongong: 11 February, Bathurst: 12 February, Katoomba: 12 February, Lithgow: 12 February, Wagga Wagga: 13 February.

Australia Capital Territory Canberra: 13–18 February.

Tasmania Hobart: 20–23 February, Wynyard: 23 February, Burnie: 23 February, Ulverstone: 23 February, Devonport: 23 February, Cressy: 23–24 February, Launceston: 24 February.

Victoria Melbourne: 24 February – 9 March.

South Australia Mount Gambier: 26 February.

Victoria Hamilton: 26 February, Flinders: 2 March, Sale: 3 March, Traralgon: 3 March, Yallourn:3 March, Warragul: 3 March, Benalla: 5 March, Shepparton: 5 March, Echuca: 5 March, Rochester: 5 March, Bendigo: 5 March, Castlemaine: 5 March, Maryborough: 5 March, Ballarat: 6 March, Geelong: 6 March, Warburton: 6 March.

Queensland Brisbane: 9–18 March, Bundaberg: 11 March, Toowoomba: 11 March, Cairns: 12 March, Townsville: 13 March, Mackay: 15 March, Rockhampton: 15 March.

New South Wales Broken Hill: 18 March.

South Australia Adelaide: 18–26 March, Whyalla: 20 March, Port Lincoln: 20 March, Woomera: 22 March, Renmark: 23 March, Mildura: 25 March.

Western Australia Kalgoorlie: 26 March, Perth: 26 March, Busselton: 30 March, Albany: 30 March, Northam: 31 March, York: 31 March, Fremantle: 1 April.

Facts and figures

The 1954 tour was a high-point of royal adulation in Australia. It is difficult to imagine a visit of such scale occurring in today’s Australia. Here are some interesting facts and figures from the 1954 Royal Tour:

• 510,000 pounds sterling approximately in total contributed by the federal government
• 500,000 miles travelled by the cars of the Royal Visit Car Company
• 200,000 pounds sterling contributed by the federal government for the use of the yacht  Gothic
• 200,000 people filled the streets in the city of Sydney when decorations for the royal tour were illuminated for the first time
• 20,000 cars trapped in the gridlock that choked the city of Sydney when decorations for the royal tour were illuminated for the first time
• 10,000 miles travelled by the Queen
• 57 hours spent by the Queen in aeroplanes
• 35 flights by the Duke
• 33 flights by the Queen

Road travel

• 2,000 road miles travelled by the Queen
• 207 car journeys made by the Queen
• 130 hours spent by the Queen in motor cars

Food usage aboard Gothic

• 10,000 cartons of canned fruit from Shepparton
• 5,000 cartons of tomato juice
• 3,237 bags of milk powder
• 1,500 cases of canned meat

Public engagements

• 100 speeches made by the Queen in towns and cities she visited
• 5 engagements per day

13 Feb 2011

Collectorfest: a right royal celebration.

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A Look Back At The Queen’s Special Relationship With Australia Over The Years

Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, has died at Balmoral aged 96.

In 1954, a newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II came to Australia as part of a Royal Tour, thus making her the first reigning British monarch to ever set foot on Australian soil. For their first trip, The royals visited 57 towns and cities during the 58 days they spent in Australia. Since then, The Queen visited the country a total of 16 times across six decades from 1954 to 2011. Tram rides, walkabouts, visiting remote communities and attending two Commonwealth Games were all part of her tours. Revisit some of her most historic moments down under and her special relationship with Australia through this photo gallery.

SEE ALSO: Australia Reacts To The Passing Of Queen Elizabeth II

1. The Queen landing at Farm Cove, NSW during her first Royal Visit to Australia on February 3, 1954

2. Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh waving to crowds in Brisbane, March 12, 1954

3. Sir John Lavarack, Governor of Queensland, with The Queen on March 18, 1954, towards the end of her Queensland journey

4. At the opening night of the Sydney Opera House on October 20, 1973

5. Opening Of the Melbourne City Square May 28, 1980

6. At the Closing Ceremony of the XII Commonwealth Games, Brisbane

7. 1100 women waiting in the Bonython Hall, Adelaide to welcome The Queen in March 1954

8. queen elizabeth ii and the duke of edinburgh at the sydney showground in february 1963.

9. On a tram ride during her visit to Melbourne on October 26, 2011

10. The Queen and Prince Philip arriving at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on October 28, 2011

11. The Lord Mayor of Hobart, Sir Richard Harris and The Queen in Tasmania, 1954

12. Unveiling a plaque at the opening of the new Royal Children’s Hospitals in Melbourne on October 26, 2011

13. At the opening of the new western Colonnade addition to the Opera House on March 13, 2006

13. The Queen at the Brisbane Airport, 1977

14. At the opening of NSW Parliament in 1954

15. The Queen and Prince Philip on a tour around the grounds of Government House, Canberra in 2011

16. Queen Elizabeth II’s arrival at the Exhibition Building, Melbourne for the Royal Ball in 1954

17. At the Adelaide Oval

18. Arriving onboard the royal train at Leura, Blue Mountains

19. Royal Visit, Sydney 1992 with a crowd of onlookers behind

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British royals to make 'much-anticipated' first visit to Australia with King Charles III as monarch

Members of the British royal family will visit Australia in 2024, New South Wales parliament has confirmed.

Key points:

• The royal visit is part of a program of events in 2024 but the actual date has not yet been publicly confirmed
• The NSW Legislative Council is the oldest judicial body in Australia
• Queen Elizabeth II last visited Australia in 2011

State governor Margaret Beazley today announced the program of events celebrating the 200 th anniversary of the NSW Legislative Council. 

Included in the events is a "much-anticipated" royal visit in 2024. 

It appears to be the first official confirmation of rumours of an imminent Australian tour for the new monarch, King Charles III. 

However, details of which members of the royal family will be included in the visit are yet to be released.  

Queen Elizabeth II’s last visit to Australia was in October 2011. 

In 1954, the late queen opened the NSW parliament, marking the beginning of the sitting session for that year.  

She called the state institution Australia’s "mother parliament". 

The NSW Legislative Council is the oldest body of its kind in Australia. 

In the schedule for the bicentenary event, the "anticipated royal tour” is listed for October 2024. 

This coincides with a Commemorative Opening of the NSW Parliament in the same month.  

Ms Beazley said the 200 th anniversary of the NSW legislative council would celebrate centuries of democracy in Australia. 

“The establishment, in 1823, of the Legislative Council as the first legislative body in Australia was to have defining and profound impacts," she said.  

"In celebrating the Bicentenary of the Legislative Council, we celebrate its role in our parliamentary democracy, as required by s5 of the NSW Constitution: ‘to make laws for the peace, welfare, and good government of New South Wales'.” 

Other events in the bicentenary celebration schedule include Indigenous seminars and public speaking events, historical exhibitions and tours of parliament. 

The first event will kick off this month with Unlocking the House,  an exhibition on Macquarie Street displaying the history of NSW’s upper house.  

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Relive Prince Charles and Princess Diana's 1983 Royal Tour of Australia and New Zealand, in Photos

The couple's iconic trip features in season four of The Crown .

The Prince and Princess of Wales touched down in the relatively remote Alice Springs. According to a People article from the time, the locale was chosen "precisely because it had never received royalty on such a grand scale."

Diana famously refused to leave her young son behind, as had been the royal custom for overseas tours up to that point.

For the most part, Prince William stayed with his nanny at Woomargama Station, a working sheep ranch where Ronald Reagan had once stayed. Charles and Diana visited with him frequently throughout their tour.

No trip to Australia is complete without a kangaroo, and the royal couple were able to spot one early on in their trip.

As is still the case, a large part of royal tours involves meeting with fans and glad-handing the public.

The royal couple hiked Ayers Rock during their stay in Australia's Northern Territory. ( The Crown cast was spotted recreating this same scene on location in Spain in 2019 .)

The Prince and Princess met with Australian Prime Minister. Bob Hawke and his wife, Hazel, in front of Canberra's Government House.

Diana chose a pink dress by Bellville Sassoon, one of her go-to labels, and a hat by John Boyd for a walkabout in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Charles places his hand on Diana's back as the approach the crowd of local fans.

The Princess wore a bright blue belted gown by Bruce Oldfield to a gala at Sydney's Wentworth Hotel.

The couple dressed to the nines and busted out their royal orders for a state reception in Hobart, Tasmania.

Diana famously loved to dance.

Charles and Diana show a little PDA during an engagement.

The duo wave from a balcony in Adelaide, Australia. Diana is wearing an Arabella Pollen suit and John Boyd hat, which pair well with her stylish bouquet.

The Princess of Wales opted for a red and white color palette during an appearance in Renmark, Australia.

Charles and Diana wave to the crowd during a walkabout in Perth. The Princess's hot pink Donald Campbell dress pairs well with a matching John Boyd hat.

Some of the younger locals get a chance to speak with the royals.

A young girl hands Diana a flower as she and Charles ride through Bunbury's Hands Oval sports ground.

Diana went full '80s in a ruffled Catherine Walker gown and pearls to attend a concert in Melbourne.

The Prince and Princess stage a photo opp in front of a highly photographable model pineapple at the Ginger Factory in Yandina, Australia.

Chloe is a News Writer for Townandcountrymag.com , where she covers royal news, from the latest additions to Meghan Markle’s staff to Queen Elizabeth’s monochrome fashions ; she also writes about culture, often dissecting TV shows like The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and Killing Eve .

@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-transform:scale(-1, 1);-moz-transform:scale(-1, 1);-ms-transform:scale(-1, 1);transform:scale(-1, 1);background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1jdielu:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}} Royal Family News @media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-128xfoy:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}}

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Queen Elizabeth II in WA 1926 -2022

Queen Elizabeth ll was the first reigning monarch of Australia to travel the country, first visiting WA in 1954, with her last visit in 2011.

She captured the hearts and minds of everyone in our state, with more than 25 000 school children gathered from Fremantle to Guilford when she left Perth for her visit to Albany.

Below we have a gallery of images of Queen Elizabeth ll visiting Western Australia. A video of Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Philip touring Western Australia in 1954. A list of catalogue items including photos, ephemera and maps relating to all of Queen Elizabeth ll visits to WA.

Video of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visiting W.A. in 1954

Watch this video on the SLWA catalogue .

Catalogue items

Digitised photos.

• Perth decorated for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, 1952
• Royal visit arrival at Perth Airport, 1954
• The 1954 royal visit to Perth
• Streets decorated for the royal visit to Perth, 1954
• Royal visit arrival at Kalgoorlie, 1954
• Royal visit arrival at Northam, 1954
• Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh driving past a highland pipe band at the Busselton Showgrounds, Western Australia, during the 1954 Royal Tour
• Ceremonial arches decorate St George's Terrace, Perth for the visit of HM Queen Elizabeth II, 3 April 1954
• Perth decorated for the Royal Visit, 1954  
• Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip travel through Claremont during their visit to Perth, 18 March 1954
• Royal visitor’s tableau for Flower Day, 1954
• Garden Party at Government House, 1954
• William De Neefe painting 'Governor's Ball for Queen Elizabeth II visit to Australia' in Perth, March 1954
• Radios and record players in Nicholson’s window display for the 1954 Royal Visit
• Decorative street lighting for 1962 Royal Visit and the Empire and Commonwealth Games
• The 1963 royal visit to Perth
• Queen Elizabeth II at an Investiture Ceremony in the Government House Ballroom 7 October 1981
• Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh leave Perth, 9 October 1981
• Queen Elizabeth II officially reopening Forrest Place after a major refurbishment, 1988.
• Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Perth for CHOGM, 28 October 2011

List of ephemera items related to the 1963 Royal Visit.

List of maps and plans relating to the Royal Visit of Queen Elizabeth II, to Western Australia, 26 March to 1 April 1954.

Physical Photographs

Physical photos yet to be digitised which you can request to view in the Leah Jane Cohen Reading Room .

• A street in Perth with decorations for the royal visit of Queen Elizabeth II who is just visible in the back of a car
• Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit Western Australia, 1954
• Royal Visit, 1977 and Big Bell Gold Mine, 1937
• The Big Aussie Barbecue, the final event of CHOGM, on The Esplanade, Perth, 30 October 2011

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'Most significant trip for the King': Australia visit likely this year

It's believed King Charles will likely visit Australia as early as October in what will be his first visit Down Under since becoming British Monarch.

The Royal is currently undergoing treatment for an unspecified cancer, but  GB News royal correspondent Cameron Walker told Today that based on how well he looked during his recent Easter outing, things are looking good for trips abroad.

"This is going to be the most significant trip for King Charles to Australia, his first since becoming king and the first of a reigning monarch since 2011, when Queen Elizabeth II went," he said.

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"He's still undergoing cancer treatment, but we saw him on Easter Sunday with the crowds and he looked very, very well indeed and royal sources seem to be indicating that that's a very positive sign his treatment is going well, so it looks like Buckingham Palace is in the early stages of planning this tour to Australia and indeed New Zealand as well."

Cameron did clarify nothing definite is confirmed and it will all depend on what his doctors advice.

But while Royal insiders have confirmed the King is frustrated at not being able to fulfil his official duties while undergoing chemotherapy, there are some strong indications the Australia visit towards the end of this year will go ahead.

"The King is very keen to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa and that's October 21 to 25," Cameron said.

"This is clearly relatively near to Australia, so if I was to bet, I would suspect he's going to travel to Australia either just before October 21 or just after October 25."

According to Royal sources, Cameron said everything is moving very much in the right direction, but nothing is set in stone as yet.

"He's only been on the throne less than two years and he's been hit with this cancer diagnosis," he said.

"And the Princess of Wales has also been diagnosed with cancer as well, so it's been a bit of a perfect storm for the Royal family over the last three months, so what they really want is some positive good news coming their way."

See the full chat with Cameron in the video above

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Charles 'raring to go' for Australia visit after positive start to cancer treatment

King Charles has instructed his aides to ramp up plans for a two-week state visit to Australia after a positive start to his cancer treatment.

The Monarch is planning to head down under for a royal visit with Queen Camilla in October.

A source told the Sun: ‘The King is raring to go and keen to get on with the job.’

Charles is said to be ‘supercharging’ plans for the trip, which will also see him visit New Zealand and Samoa, after reportedly feeling ‘over the moon’ after a successful start to his cancer treatment.

However, it is believed the tour would include ‘significant down-time’ to ensure he has enough energy to perform his royal duties, according to insiders.

Buckingham Palace said ‘nothing is ruled in or out’ after the King was spotted on an Easter walkabout on Sunday.

But despite Charles’ desire to ‘get on with the job,’ they remain ‘cautious’ about his physical health following his diagnosis.

Charles is known to take around six or seven engagements each day on a foreign tour. An insider told the publication : ‘The King is raring to go after a significant amount of time off due to his cancer diagnosis.

‘He knows he can’t hang around and is feeling extremely positive after tests meant he could attend the Easter Sunday service and spend time meeting the public, which he has missed.

‘Although his doctors are keeping an eye on his health, he’s itching to take the reins and get back to his public role as Head of State.

‘He’s over the moon with the way treatment has gone and supercharging plans for Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.

‘He wants to follow his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s mantra, that he needs to be seen to be believed.’

Trips to Australia are considered to be amongst the most prestigious and gruelling engagements on the royal calendar, which involve traversing 20,000 miles over the course of a 21-hour flight.

Queen Elizabeth was the only serving monarch to set foot in the country, having visited 16 times over the course of her reign, the first in 1954 and last in 2011.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

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Rumors of King Charles Touring Australia amid Cancer Re-Emerge as Source Says Nothing Has Been Ruled Out

The King's nephew recently shared that the monarch is "hugely frustrated" that he "do everything that he wants to be able to do" amid cancer treatment

Stephanie Petit is a Royals Editor, Writer and Reporter at PEOPLE.

ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty

King Charles ' first trip Down Under as monarch is still up in the air amid his cancer treatment .

After Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last month that the country is "preparing for a possible visit from His Majesty The King to Australia later this year," new reports say the King, 75, is prepping for the visit to occur this fall.

A royal source guides that nothing has been ruled out or in as they look ahead to the fall and planning continues for future engagements, but it is all subject to medical advice and there may be adaptations where necessary at the time. Overseas visits would not and could not be confirmed until nearer the time.

Before news of his cancer diagnosis, King Charles was widely expected to travel to Australia around the time of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which is being held in Samoa and scheduled to kick off on Oct. 24. Since Australia is a Commonwealth realm, they recognize the British monarch as their head of state.

"The King has shown his compassion for Australians affected by recent natural disasters, just as Australians have shown compassion and support for the King following his cancer diagnosis," Albanese said last month. "The King, Queen and members of the royal family are always welcome in Australia. My government is engaging with states and territories on options for a possible royal visit."

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

A royal source recently told PEOPLE that the monarch and his team are thinking about a summer schedule amid "amplified confidence" in light of the sophisticated cancer treatment he is receiving, adding that the King is "positive" and his doctors "are optimistic."

While he's continued to work behind the scenes, King Charles' royal engagements have been restricted to small numbers of people since the palace  revealed his cancer diagnosis  on Feb. 5, However, towards the summer when the risk of airborne illnesses eases, larger events could take place outside – such as  Trooping the Colour , the annual public celebration of the monarch's birthday set for June 15 this year.

"One thing that has been wholly undiminished is his appetite for work," the royal source added.

Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty

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Peter Phillips , the King's nephew, recently said the monarch is "very keen to get back to a form of normality."

“I think, ultimately, he's hugely frustrated . He's frustrated that he can't get on and do everything that he wants to be able to do," Princess Anne's son said on Sky News Australia 's  The   Royal Report. “But he is very pragmatic, [and] he understands that there's a period of time that he really needs to focus on himself."

HOLLIE ADAMS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

In a promising sign of his progress, King Charles made his first major public appearance since his cancer news on Easter to attend church with members of the royal family. After the mass at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, the monarch and  Queen Camilla  briefly  greeted members of the public on a surprise walkabout.

"Get well soon, Your Majesty," a woman said in a video shared to  X  by Rebecca English of the  Daily Mail , prompting the King to reply, " I'm doing my best! "

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The Royal Family Is Opening Balmoral Castle to the Public For the First Time in History

The special interior tours of the royal family’s Scottish retreat sold out in less than a day

Daily Correspondent

When  Queen Victoria visited Scotland for the first time in the fall of 1842, she fell in love with the  Highlands , the rugged region in the country’s northwest corner. Six years later, her husband, Prince Albert , leased an estate with an old castle in the Highlands for his wife. In 1852, they purchased the land in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and got to work building a bigger castle.

The new Balmoral Castle was completed in 1855. Since then, it’s been handed down through generations of the royal family. But members of the public haven’t been allowed inside most of its interior—until now.

For the first time,  Charles III is opening up the private retreat to visitors. This summer, the castle will offer special guided tours “through several of the beautiful rooms within Balmoral Castle,” per the  castle’s website .

Tickets for the new tours sold out within a day of being released, reports  BBC News . However, those lucky enough to have snagged a spot—starting at £100, or roughly $125—are in for a rare treat.

“You will learn about the origins of the castle and how it has been loved by generations of the royal family,” according to the castle’s website. “Travel through time from the purchase of the Balmoral by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, through to present day, where you can see how rooms within the castle are used today by their Majesties the King and Queen and other members of the royal family.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Balmoral Castle (@balmoral_castle)

For everyone else, the castle’s grounds, gardens and exhibitions will be open from May 4 through August 11. You can even have afternoon tea in the castle’s restaurant or rent one of the five cottages located on the estate’s grounds.

For the royal family, Balmoral Castle has long served as a retreat from the hustle and bustle—and the limelight—of London.  Elizabeth II , in particular, loved spending time on the property with her beloved pups. There, she had “the privacy to stroll with her corgis around the gardens, catch up on correspondence … go fly fishing on the river Dee or take in a round of golf on her private course,” as Jill O'Brien wrote for  CNN in 2013.

The estate has also been the site of many significant moments for the royal family. It’s where Prince William and Prince Harry learned of the  death of their mother , Diana, Princess of Wales. Elizabeth II  died at the castle in September 2022.

The property spans  50,000 acres and has 150 buildings, including the  167-room castle .

Meanwhile, back in London,  Buckingham Palace’s East Wing will also open to the public this summer after undergoing a five-year renovation. For the first time, guests will be able to explore the room that leads out to the palace’s main balcony, reports  Vanity Fair ’s Kase Wickman. The balcony is where members of the family gather during certain special events and where  newly married royals have waved to their adoring fans below.

Guided tours of the East Wing will take place in July and August, per BBC News . Visitors will be able to strolling along the Principal Corridor, the main hallway that runs through the wing, and gaze at various artworks, including pieces painted by 18th-century artist  Thomas Gainsborough .

“Visitors will discover the history of the Wing, first occupied by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children and still used by the royal family today for official meetings and events,” according to a  statement from the Royal Collection Trust, the charity that manages the royal residences.

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Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.