Adelaide, Remember When the Royals came to town?
WITH the Kate and Wills on their way Down Under, we take a look back at all the major Royal visits to the SA Colony, starting in 1954.
NEWS that Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge are heading Down Under next month got me thinking of some of the other royal visits to Adelaide.
The Queen has visited Australia 16 times and South Australians have always had a fascination with the royal family.
Who can forget the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s first visit back in 1954 when we welcomed the beautiful young queen and her handsome prince to Adelaide for the first time?
Reports from The Advertiser on that day, March 18, 1954, estimated a crowd of some 200,000 people turned out for the start of her eight-day visit, with large numbers lining the route from Parafield Airport.
Later that week, at the Wayville showground, more than 100,000 children from schools all over the city gathered for a royal music festival.
During the visit, a satellite city north of Adelaide was named in the Queen’s honour.
The newspapers were full of the Royal visit and for the week the Royals were here their activities dominated the scene.
THE QUEEN AND DUKE OF EDINBURGH - FIRST VISIT TO ADELAIDE
The highlight of that first visit for the children of Adelaide was being bussed to Wayville showgrounds to take part in a special display to welcome Her Majesty. We practiced for weeks at school to form part of a giant tableau which spelled out ‘LOYALTY’ and formed the crown. It was quite spectacular really and went without a hitch. After that we got to sit on the oval while other school children performed dances and other various acts depicting life in Australia.
We, the people of South Australia, were so happy to see the Royal couple on that first occasion we gave them a special gift, the ‘Andamooka Opal necklace and earring set’. It featured 180 diamonds and the finest piece of opal ever mined at Andamooka. The opal weighed 203 carats and displayed a magnificent array of colours and would be valued in today’s terms at more than $250,000.
THE QUEEN MUM – 1958
The Queen Mother came four years later in 1958. She had first toured Australia as the Duchess of Cornwall and York with her husband in 1927. The couple was supposed to return for another tour in 1949 and then again in 1952, but plans for both these visits were cancelled due to her husband, the King’s, ill health.
From February 15 to March 7 the Queen Mum finally made it to Australia and Adelaide. The Prime Minister had called for ‘plenty of flags’ on display but he did not propose to illuminate and decorate Commonwealth buildings as had been done for the royal visit of 1954. In spite of the lack of bunting, the tour met with great approval from the public.
During her 1958 tour, the Queen Mother visited Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Whilst in Adelaide she attended State Parliament, officially opened the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Woodville and unveiled a portrait of Queen Elizabeth in the foyer before attending a garden party.
THE QUEEN – 1963 and 1977
There was a much less formal visit by the Queen in 1963, when she toured all the states and territories, with the primary purpose of leading the Canberra Jubilee celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the naming of the capital. Although it was lower key than the 1954 visit, once again thousands of Royal watchers turned out to welcome the Queen and Prince Phillip to Adelaide.
And again, we welcomed Her Majesty in 1977 as Australia figured prominently in The Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. The Royal couple visited every state during a three-week tour. During a hectic visit to Adelaide, they officially opened the new Festival Theatre, visited Lindsay Park Stud in the Barossa Valley, conducted a ‘meet the people’ walk through Rundle Mall and visited Glenelg.
DIANA – 1983
The most popular Royal in recent history – Princess Diana – visited Adelaide in 1983 with Prince Charles. They were here at the start of their tour of Southern Australia in April that year. Just looking at an itinerary of their visit, it looks a bit dull compared to some of the earlier Royal visits: they were met by demonstrators calling for British troops to leave Northern Ireland, then they visited a local community centre and a keep fit class, Prince Charles visited a film studio and later the royal couple attended a disco at Adelaide University.
Regardless of the waning popularity of the Royal family in Australia, Princess Diana was universally loved by everybody, created great interest and attracted large crowds of admirers wherever she went.
Which of the Royal visits do you remember most of all: as a child in 1954, the Queen Mum’s visit in 1958, the Silver Jubilee celebrations of 1977 or Diana and Charles’ visit in 1983? Comment below.
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