MASS hysteria and public pashing; crazed gunmen, over-familiar prime ministers and overcome sportsmen.
Then there are the swearing birds, stinking marsupials and enough awkward photos to fill an album. Or five.
From last century’s “Sexy Tour” to this pop-in by Prince Harry (in the eyes of many, Sexy Flying Visit), royal tours of Australia have always been fantastic affairs.
Even in the earliest days they were marked by scenes of public mania — at times so wild that people were killed in the mayhem — and, behind the scenes, by official bickering over which towns would be graced with a regal appearance.
It’s the public memories that last — the life-changing words of inspiration from a princess to a sick child, or the unstaged moments (the notorious Duke of Banter, Prince Philip, being told to “get out” by a cranky cockatoo, is unforgettable) — and of course picture after phenomenal picture.
So we’ve raided the News Corp photo archives to present the best moments of the ruling family’s visits to our shores
Royals Go Bush, Royals and the Animal Kingdom, Royals at the Beach, Royals Meet the Great Aussie Public ... and those Royal Awkies. Here we present the Royal Aussie albums, and take a look back at some of the greatest historical moments of royal fever.
The first royal visit, over five hot months from 1867 to 1868, was by Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred.
Communities across the nation clamoured for the rather awkward naval captain’s approval.
Organisation was woefully inadequate: 100,000 people turned up to a public banquet in Melbourne, which, while hugely undercatered, featured fountains connected to wine barrels — promptly drained by local “louts”, as the prince was hurried away to avoid seeing such degradation.
His visit to Bendigo was marred by a devastating fireworks accident. Three boys burned to death after they climbed on top of the centrepiece of a pyrotechnics display.
And in Queensland, a naval cadet’s hand was blown off during a gun salute.
Although the prince was distressed by the tragedies the incidents did not dampen the public’s enthusiasm for the royal family.
Everybody wanted a piece of the prince (anecdotally, those most likely to get a piece were the ladies of Sydney and Melbourne: one esteemed historian said Alfred was mainly interested in “hunting and whoring” his way around Oz).
The only person really unhappy to see Prince Alfred was the man who tried to kill him.
Henry James O’Farrell, a mentally ill alcoholic, shot the Duke of Edinburgh in the back as he picnicked in Clontarf, Sydney.
The bullet was slowed by the prince’s thick leather braces and he survived — not so O’Farrell, who was denounced as an Irish Fenian terrorist, tried and hung, despite Alfred’s urging for clemency; meanwhile a wave of embarrassment (and anti-Irish sentiment) swept across the nation and scores of public buildings, parks and more were named for Alfred.
The mania was repeated again and again in years to come — though thankfully with the emphasis on bouquets not bullets.
First with the “Sexy Tour” (superbly dubbed as such by historian Jane Connors) of 1920, by Edward, Prince of Wales — the ladies’ man who later flirted with Hitler’s Fascism and abdicated the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Women were wowed; men who served in WWI idolised him for his wartime support; and he achieved superhero status when his train overturned in WA — emerging unscathed, clutching a cocktail shaker and cracking a joke.
However it would later emerge the affection was not always reciprocated.
Edward did not like being manhandled by the crowds. He branded Aussies “coarse boobs” — and was scathing about Aboriginals — in letters to his pre-Wallis squeeze, a married London mother, Freda Dudley Ward.
So thank goodness for the Queen Mum.
The Duke and Duchess of York (later known as King George and the Queen Mother) came Down Under in 1927.
Prince Albert and the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon displayed the “common touch” that would later get London through the Blitz and continues to be honed by the Windsors of today (we’re looking at you, Harry). They spoke to working people, enquiring after their health, playing off the shared situation of being a young family.
And while the duchess cast a mould, the duke was just as popular — at one stage needing a decoy (or duke-oy) so he could dodge well-meaning crowds who had penned him into a Brisbane theatre. The couple left with three tonnes of presents.
A monumental success — though the best was yet to come.
Waves of adoration ... the Queen and Prince Philip are driven through Brisbane in 1954.
Royal fever peaked in 1954 with the first ever visit of a reigning monarch — the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II.
Anticipation had been building for years. The Queen’s father had been unable to visit Australia after World War II and her 1952 trip to Australia as a princess was cancelled en route when she learned of the king’s death.
Yet she vowed to keep her promise to the Australian people.
In the days before she sailed into Sydney, thousands were sleeping out at vantage points.
When she stepped ashore at Garden Island, the 1.5 million-strong crowd were momentarily stunned — a short-lived silence that soon erupted into a storm of cheering.
The adoration and adulation continued for the duration of her two-month visit.
It is estimated that seven million of Australia’s nine million people turned out to see her at some stage (well, it was before mainstream television).
And so it goes.
Our shores have been graced by the royal family many more times since then. The Queen has visited Australia 16 times. Prince Charles (who spent two terms at Geelong Grammar School’s Timbertop campus in the Victorian Alps during the 1960s) has made even more trips — solo, with his parents, with first wife Diana and with current spouse Camilla. Prince William has visited three times (with his parents as a baby, by himself then with his own wife and their son, George). This visit, to open the Invictus Games in Sydney, is Harry’s fourth — and this fascinating profile gives an idea of what it’s like to be him.
The crowd sizes have diminished from the peaks of ’54 but Australians are still eager for a brush with royalty.
Even not-really-royal Pippa Middleton (sister of Wills’ wife Catherine) got us all in a lather on her Aussie honeymoon just a week before the latest Harry trip. Well, some of us — this writer was not so impressed.
There have been moments of mild controversy — in the 1990s the Queen kept her distance to avoid being dragged into the republican debate, and in 1994 a man firing a starter pistol into the air stormed a stage where Prince Charles was handing out Australia Day awards in Sydney — but on the whole regal visits have been marked by cheer, goodwill and affection between the House of Windsor and modern Australia.
True blue, royal blue.
Here’s what you can expect with tomorrow’s Parramatta weather
As summer moves towards autumn what can locals expect tomorrow? We have the latest word from the Weather Bureau.
Here’s what you can expect with tomorrow’s Parramatta weather
As summer moves towards autumn what can locals expect tomorrow? We have the latest word from the Weather Bureau.