Members of the British royal family regularly tour Australia, whilst there were only six visits between 1867 and 1954. Elizabeth II was the first reigning monarch of Australia to have set foot on Australian soil; she first did so on 3 February 1954, when she was 27 years old. During her sixteen journeys, the Queen visited every Australian state and the two major territories. In all, the reigning Australian monarch has visited Australia seventeen times, sixteen times under Elizabeth II, and once under her son and successor Charles III.
Victoria's reign
Prince Alfred's visit 1867–1868 The first member of the Royal Family to visit Australia was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, son of Queen Victoria, in 1867.
The trip was fraught with disaster. Prince Alfred arrived on board HMS Galatea, of which he was also Captain, as part a world cruise. On 31 October 1867, he landed at South Australia and spent three weeks there. He toured South Australia, then attended the funeral of one of his ship's crew, who had accidentally drowned at Glenelg. He departed for Melbourne on the 22nd, and was met by Governor of Victoria on board the Victoria, who escorted the Galatea back to Melbourne. He officially landed on the 25th.
During the welcome ceremonies, 10,000 people gathered to meet him. An image of William of Orange defeating the Catholic armies at the Battle of the Boyne was erected on a hall in Melbourne. Someone fired shots from inside the hall into the Irish Catholic crowd who had gathered outside to throw stones at the hall, a Catholic boy was killed, and a riot between Irish Catholics and Protestants subsequently broke out.
On the 27th, the public banquet the Prince was supposed to attend turned into a riot after Prince Alfred cancelled his attendance, concerned about security. He then visited Geelong, where large crowds gathered, leading the organising committee to flee. Prince Alfred then visited Bendigo, where a wooden model of the Galatea was erected as the center of a fireworks display. Three boys climbed into the model and burned to death when fireworks they let off set it on fire. A ball was then planned in the newly opened Alfred Hall, named in his honour. It caught fire and burned to the ground before the ball.
Prince Alfred then left for Tasmania on 28 November. He arrived in Hobart on 6 January, and was met by the steamship Southern Cross and escorted down the Derwent River. Hobart lit enormous bonfires on the hills around the city to mark the occasion. Prince Alfred's visit to Tasmania was relatively uneventful. He laid the foundation stone of St David's Cathedral, Hobart, and several events were held in his honour. He was then taken by road to the north of the state, and stayed at the country estate of Robert Kermode, Mona Vale. He then visited Ross, Campbell Town, Cleveland, Perth and Launceston, where he planted trees in Prince's Square and turned the first sod for the construction of the Launceston railway terminus.
Prince Alfred then visited Sydney for a tour. During his tour of the Australian Museum, the Colonial Secretary, Henry Parkes produced a live snake, and the museum curator Gerard Krefft, produced a 'Timor Mongoose', which subsequently ignored the snake. Parkes then produced another mongoose from a bag, which attempted to escape before fighting and killing the snake for the Prince's entertainment. The Prince then kept the mongoose as a pet, and took it with him when he left Australia.
Prince Alfred then departed for Brisbane. Upon his return to Sydney in March, the Duke was shot by Henry James O'Farrell in an assassination attempt while picnicking on the beach in the Sydney suburb of Clontarf, on 12 March 1868. The Duke recovered fully and continued on to New Zealand seven months later.
Other visits Prince George of Wales, aged 15, visited Australia with his older brother, Prince Albert Victor of Wales, aged 17, in 1881, as midshipmen in training on . They arrived at Albany, Western Australia in May, crossed to South Australia in a passenger vessel, travelled overland to Melbourne and from there sailed on a naval vessel to Sydney.
Edward VII's reign
In 1901, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and his wife Alexandra were planning an Empire tour. However, the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901 meant that the couple had to prepare for a coronation in 1902. Consequently, Edward's son Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, and his wife, Princess Mary, were assigned to undertake the voyage instead. Arriving at Albany, Western Australia, on , they sailed to Melbourne, where he opened the first Australian federal parliament. The royal couple later travelled by train to Sydney. They visited Queensland from 20 to 25 May, where they laid the foundation stone of St John's Cathedral (Brisbane). They were in Adelaide from 9 to 15 July.
George V's reign Edward, Prince of Wales arrived in Victoria on 26 May 1920, representing his father, George V (previously Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York), to thank Australians for their participation in the First World War. He was accompanied by Lord Louis Mountbatten.
During the tour, his railway carriage overturned near Bridgetown, Western Australia. However, the Prince remained unharmed and made light of the situation, emerging from the wreck with some important papers and a cocktail shaker, an act which endeared him to Australians and caused them to give him the nickname the "Digger Prince".
In 1926, Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Elizabeth, Duchess of York, had their first child, Princess Elizabeth, who would later become Queen Elizabeth II. The following year they undertook a Royal Tour without the baby. Queen Elizabeth was, in her own words, "very miserable at leaving the baby".Elizabeth's diary, 6 January 1927, quoted in Shawcross, p. 264 Their journey by sea took them via Jamaica, the Panama Canal and the Pacific; Elizabeth fretted constantly over her baby back in Britain, but their journey was a public relations success.Shawcross, pp. 266–296 In New Zealand, the Yorks enjoyed the local fishingShawcross, pp. 281–282 in the Bay of Islands accompanied by Australian sports fisherman Harry Andreas.
When they sailed into Sydney harbour on , they attracted Australia's first gathering of more than one million people. The principal duty of the Prince on this visit was to open the provisional Parliament House in Canberra, on 9 May 1927. They spent 12 days in New South Wales, seven in Queensland, four in Tasmania, eleven in Victoria, six in South Australia, six in Western Australia and three in the Australian Capital Territory, with the remaining 10 for travelling and recreation.
According to a report by the director-general of the royal visit, Cyril Brudenell White, "the Royal Visitors had expressed the wish that when travelling through the States they might have opportunities of seeing and of being seen by, the greatest number of the general public. They especially desired to meet returned soldiers, new settlers and school children." On 9 May, Prince Albert reviewed over 2,000 Australian troops with various air squadrons flying overhead. One aircraft, piloted by Flying Officer Charles Ewan, crashed, killing Ewan.
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of George V, visited for an extensive 67-day tour in 1934, (4 October – December), the main purpose being to open the centenary celebrations of Victoria on 18 October. He arrived on at Fremantle, then travelled by train to Adelaide and ship to Melbourne. He also visited the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland. While in Melbourne, the Duke dedicated the Shrine of Remembrance on 11 November and later opened the ANZAC War Memorial in Sydney on 24 November 1934. He sailed to New Zealand from Brisbane, before returning to England.
George VI's reign The Duke of Gloucester served as Governor-General of Australia from 20 January 1945 – 10 March 1947, the first and only royal Governor-General of Australia.
On 6 March 1948 it was announced that the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth would embark on a royal tour of Australia and New Zealand the following spring, accompanied by their daughter Princess Margaret. Plans were already well advanced when, on 23 November, it was announced that the tour would have to be cancelled owing to the King's declining health. An attempt to reschedule the tour, in scaled-back form, for early 1952 also foundered and plans for Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip to visit instead were put on hold when the King died in February of that year.
Elizabeth II's reign
1950s
Elizabeth II was the first reigning monarch of Australia to set foot on Australian soil, coming ashore at Farm Cove, Sydney, on 3 February 1954. She had planned to visit there two years earlier been en route to Australia when her father died while she was on a private visit to Kenya, forcing her to return to the United Kingdom. Once finally in Australia, with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, she undertook a journey through the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, including greeting 70,000 ex-servicemen and women at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and opening the Australian Parliament in Canberra. In all, the Queen travelled 10,000 miles by air, making approximately 33 flights, 2000 miles by road (130 hours in cars in 207 trips), visiting all capitals except Darwin and 70 country towns, many by special "royal trains". On one such train trip they visited Leuralla, at Leura, in the Blue Mountains. Twenty-seven years earlier, Harry Andreas of Leuralla had acted as a fishing guide for the Queen's parents, whilst the young Princess "Lillibet" was left at home with her grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary. This extensive travel allowed some 75 per cent of the Australian population to see the Queen at least once during the tour. Elizabeth was so popular with the Australian people they came out in their thousands, lining the streets for an opportunity to see her drive past or attending formal events where she was the honoured and most distinguished guest. Adoring crowds hoped for the opportunity to shake her hand, give her a posy of fresh flowers or to engage in a short conversation with her as she walked by. At the conclusion of the tour the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, stated in an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald:
It is a basic truth that for our Queen we have within us, sometimes unrealised until the moment of expression, the most profound and passionate feelings of loyalty and devotion. It does not require much imagination to realise that when eight million people spontaneously pour out this feeling they are engaging in a great act of common allegiance and common joy which brings them closer together and is one of the most powerful elements converting them from a mass of individuals to a great cohesive nation. In brief, the common devotion to the Throne is a part of the very cement of the whole social structure.
In 1956, the Duke of Edinburgh opened the Olympic Games in Melbourne, and opened the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, while on a tour through Western Australia, New South Wales and the ACT. In 1965 he opened the Royal Australian Mint, and in 1968 went to Australia to open the Duke of Edinburgh Study Conference.
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother visited in 1958 to attend the British Empire Service League Conference in Canberra. She travelled to the Australian Capital Territory, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide and Perth, as well as many provincial and country areas during the time of her visit 14 February – 7 March.
Princess Alexandra of Kent visited in 1959 for Queensland's centenary celebrations. She arrived at Canberra and travelled to New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
1960s