Oz was her home away from home
The Queen’s first visit to Australia in 1954 set in train a love affair with her subjects on the other side of the world,
‘Icannot forget that I was on my way to Australia when my father died. Since then, and since I first stepped ashore here in Sydney in February 1954, I have felt part of this rugged, honest, creative land. I have shared in the joys and sorrows, the challenges and the changes that have shaped this country’s history,” the Queen said in a speech in Sydney in 2000.
She visited four times in the 1970s alone, including in 1970 when she and Prince Philip were accompanied by Prince Charles and Princess Anne and the royal “walkabout” was introduced. Now a regular part of any royal visit, it was revolutionary at the time for the Queen to wander among the crowds.
Sir William Heseltine, the Queen’s private secretary, said it caused a media frenzy, especially when Philip and Anne were heard swearing. “Princess Anne was quoted as referring to ‘this bloody wind’, shocking many old-fashioned Australians who could not believe any member of the royal family would use such language,” he wrote in his memoirs. Philip, allegedly, was greeted in Greek by a fan and replied with a Greek swear word.
One child in the crowd that year was Jeff DeAth, who travelled from the NSW town of Eugowra to Sydney to see the Queen. “I was on my brother’s shoulders and had a great view – probably better than him,” he says.
“For a country kid, it was a pretty exciting thing to happen; the people, the crowds and seeing the Queen. I think I even ended up with my photo in the paper.”
Seven years later on her Silver Jubilee tour of Australia, not everyone was so happy to see her, with the Queen facing anti-royalist demonstrations in Adelaide.
They were happy to see Charles in 1977, though, when he was famously accosted by bikini-clad women, describing how “three of the healthiest young women I have ever seen were removed from the airport at Coolangatta before I arrived because someone had decided that their bikinis were too brief”.
In 1980, the Queen got a glimpse of a partially clad Aussie for herself, when she met Paul Hogan in his trademark stubbies and torn-off shirt alongside a more glamorous Olivia Newton-John, in one of the most iconic Aussie photos of all time. “Everyone was horrified except the Queen,” Hoges said later.
“She apologised that she wouldn’t be able to come to dinner at my place. She had a sense of humour,” he told radio hosts Jonesy and Amanda in an interview.
Less hilarious was her visit in 1992 when the then prime minister Paul Keating broke protocol and put his arm around the Queen, earning him the nickname The Lizard of Oz by the furious British tabloids.
All the while, the republican movement was growing, which meant that the Queen subsequently stayed away until the referendum of 1999 was decided.
But even when she was not here, Australia was never far from her thoughts. Horrified by the Port Arthur massacre of 1996, she said: “I offer my prayers to you all.” And she was devastated by the repeated bushfires and natural disasters over the years.
“On visits down the years, I have had the privilege of meeting … Indigenous entrepreneurs and artists, outback educators, charity workers and volunteer firefighters. It is through the deeds and dedication of these quiet achievers that the spirit of Australia finds its highest expression,” she said in Canberra in 2006.
Her last visit was in 2011, when she and Philip bade goodbye to the country that had for so long meant so much to them.
Some 100,000 people farewelled her that October day in Perth. And now the whole nation – and the world – farewells her forever.
A million are on the move, swarming in the streets like bees in the sun
TOUR FILM NARRATOR