Private letter to Gough Whitlam reveals Queen Elizabeth II’s thrill at opening the Sydney Opera House

A letter from the Queen’s private secretary discovered in Gough Whitlam’s papers discloses her joy at opening the Sydney Opera House and eagerness to exercise ‘constitutional functions’ in Australia.

Queen Elizabeth with Gough Whitlam and his wife Margaret in Canberra in October 1973.

When Queen Elizabeth II stood on the windswept shore of Sydney Harbour and opened the Opera House – 50 years ago on Friday – she spoke of the ­“remarkable addition” it made to the city’s “architecture and to its cultural and community life” that had captured the world’s imagination.

“The human spirit must sometimes take wings or sails, and create something that is not just utilitarian or commonplace,” she told the one million Australians who crowded Bennelong Point, the harbour and city, along with prime minister Gough Whitlam and NSW premier Sir Robert Askin, on October 20, 1973.

A newly discovered letter reveals the queen was thrilled with the grand opening of Sydney’s architectural gift to the world and instructed her private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, to write to Whitlam to say she enjoyed herself immensely during the visit.

“I have just been talking to the queen about the events of the last week and Her Majesty told me to write to you as soon as possible to tell you how much she had enjoyed herself and how satisfied she was with the way everything had gone,” Sir Martin wrote to Whitlam on October 24, 1973.

“The opening of the Sydney Opera House was the ideal sort of occasion for a visit of this nature to be built around, and I am sure it was right to limit the program basically to this and not to pack in a lot of other events unconnected with it.”

The letter, drafted aboard a flight en route from Singapore to Tehran, was discovered in Whitlam’s personal papers at The Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University.

The idea of an opera house was suggested by Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, but it was NSW premier Joe Cahill who ­advocated it publicly, secured cabinet, caucus and party ­conference support, provided the location and initial funding, and unveiled the winning design by Danish architect Jorn Utzon in 1957.

The queen returned to the Sydney Opera House on October 22 to attend a performance of The Magic Flute ballet before boarding a Qantas Boeing 707 and departing Australia.

Sir Martin noted she enjoyed three days in Canberra accompanied by Prince Philip, carrying out a series of “important constitutional functions” in her capacity as Australia’s head of state. It represented a new “style” of visit for Australia’s monarch.

These functions included giving assent to a bill revising her “style and titles”, proclaiming her revised title as “queen of Australia”, presiding over a meeting of the Executive Council and a ministerial swearing-in, and signing ambassadorial credentials and ratifying a treaty.

“The queen is most grateful to you for having been her host on a number of occasions, at the parliamentary luncheon in Canberra, at the ballet, and also luncheon at The Lodge, which Her Majesty particularly enjoyed,” Sir Martin wrote while gazing out to a panorama of the Himalayas and drinking an alcoholic beverage.

Troy Bramston is writing a biography of Gough Whitlam, to be published by HarperCollins in 2025.