First royal set to visit Australia for first time since Meghan and Harry’s 2018 tour

For the first time since Meghan and Harry’s 2018 tour of Australia, it’s been announced one of the British royal’s is headed down under.

Australia will get the British royal treatment this year for the first time since 2018.

Queen Elizabeth’s daughter, Princess Anne, has been confirmed as a guest of honour at the upcoming Sydney Royal Easter Show in April.

The 71-year-old will open the Easter show on Friday, April 8, and is also expected to tour regional parts of Australia, however the palace is yet to announce formal plans.

“Her Royal Highness is specifically coming to Australia in her role as Patron of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth to open the 2022 Sydney Royal Easter Show where we celebrate our Bicentenary,” organisers said in a statement.

“HRH also opened the 1988 Sydney Royal Show where we celebrated the nation’s bicentenary.”

Princess Anne will tour Australia in April. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Members of the royal family haven’t visited Australia since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s headline grabbing tour in October, 2018.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex toured down under just five months after their royal wedding, and upon landing in Sydney, they announced they were expecting their first child.

Among their string of appearances down under, Meghan, 40, and Harry, 37, stopped by Bondi Beach, Dubbo, Fraser Island and Melbourne.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at Bondi Beach. Picture: Chris Jackson-Pool/Getty Images

The couple received a rock star welcome in Australia in 2018. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Anne’s tour comes after reports Prime Minister Scott Morrison had extended an invite to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to tour Australia amid the horrific bushfires in late 2019.

Kensington Palace was reportedly finalising details with the Australian government in February 2020 for Prince William and Kate Middleton to visit to affected communities, with reports their three children would also tag along.

Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic halted international travel the following month and impacted plans for them to visit, which would’ve been their first time back to Australia since 2014.

Originally published as First royal set to visit Australia for first time since Meghan and Harry’s 2018 tour