1954 royal tour tasmania

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SNAPSHOT: The 1954 Royal Tour

Princess Elizabeth was en route to Australia, via Kenya, when she received news in February 1952 of the premature death of her father, 56-year-old King George VI. She hastily abandoned her trip but visited Australia two years later as the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II, the first and only reigning British monarch ever to do so. That 1954 visit was the first of 16 royal tours by the Queen to Australia but was, by every measure, the most successful – and resoundingly so. Royal fever gripped the postwar nation, which seemed to fall, en masse, under the spell of the young queen. During the two-month sojourn it’s estimated that more than 7 million Australians – 70 per cent of the population – attempted to see Elizabeth and her consort, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

In Sydney, 1 million residents reportedly thronged the harbour foreshore and lined the city streets, waiting for hours just to glimpse the royal couple following their arrival on 3 February 1954 at Farm Cove aboard the royal barge.

During the following 58 days, the pair visited 57 towns and cities across the country on an exhausting program of public engagements and community and sporting events. They saw natural wonders such as the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains and the Great Barrier Reef, and watched surf carnivals and gymnastics displays. They met Indigenous leaders, war veterans, farmers and factory workers and hordes of schoolchildren. Australia presented itself as a confident and vigorous young nation with seemingly boundless resources. It was forward-looking while still valuing its strong bonds with the motherland.

It wasn’t until the Queen’s next tour, in 1963, that Prime Minister Menzies famously quoted the poetic phrase “I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die”. But he was already feeling effusive in 1954, and avowed his most profound and passionate feelings of loyalty and devotion to the throne in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald .

Formal celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – 70 years on the throne – the first British monarch to reach such a milestone, will take place in the UK across the long weekend 2–5 June 2022. Among the events and celebrations here in Australia, the Queen’s Jubilee Program is providing up to $15.1 million in grants to eligible groups and organisations for community-based tree-planting programs.

For more information, see The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022 .

All photographs by Max Dupain/Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales

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Series 1953-1954 Royal Tour

Series author: s.f. clark.

• The Royal Tour, Part 1: Outward Bound by S.F. Clark
• The Royal Tour, Part 2: New Zealand by S.F. Clark
• The Royal Visit to Auckland Dec 23-30 1953 by richardsjh
• The Royal Visit to Wellington, Jan 9-16, 1954 by Frank Simpson
• The Royal Tour, Part 3: Australia by S.F. Clark
• Royal Visit to Tasmania 1954 - Official Souvenir Programme by K B Ready
• The Royal Tour, Part 4: Homeward Bound by Stanley Frederick Clark

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• The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) View title info
• Sat 7 Feb 1953 Prev issue Next issue Browse issues
• Page 1 Prev page Next page Browse pages
• ROYAL TOUR ITINERARY ANNOUNCED FOR 1954 Prev article Next article Browse articles

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• Abstract Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh will visit Australia from February 3 to April 1, 1954, it was announced in a broad outline of the royal tour itinerary released by the Prime Minister's Department to-day.
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The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Sat 7 Feb 1953, Page 1 - ROYAL TOUR ITINERARY ANNOUNCED FOR 1954

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The Royal Watcher

Queen in hobart, 1954, embed from getty images window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'bmnsyey1q5rnonnjceta9q',sig:'yhbrwomqffk6holc-dytky8z6aho-7h2okrlv7tl3qg=',w:'470px',h:'594px',items:'615158407',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});.

Queen Elizabeth II (wearing  Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara  and her  Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau Necklace , a combination recently worn by the Duchess of Cambridge ) arrives at a State Reception at the City Hall in Hobart, Tasmania on this day in 1954, during the Australian leg of her 6-month Commonwealth Tour.

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Royal Tour 1953/54 Archive; D_2017-069

Maritime Museum Tasmania

Royal Tour 1953/54 Archive

A collection of documents relating to the Royal visit in 1953/54. Photocopy Extract from "The Building of Britannia" Photocopies Extracts from "The Examiner" 1963 visit Book Itinerary and Outline Programe Staff issue Chart Outward Journey 1953-54 Chart Homeward Journey 1953-54 Chart Royal Tour of Australia and New Zealand 1952 Photocopy Photo on board Crossing the line ceremony 53-54 tour Photocopy Photo from "The Times" Jamaica Queen and Duke of Edinburgh joining tour 53-54 tour Photocopy Photo on board Crossing the line ceremony 53-54 tour Photocopy Photo on board from "The Times" Fiji Photocopy Photo on board from "The Times" Radio room 53-54 tour Photocopy Victoria dock Visit 1954 Letter From Gen Manager Marconi to D C Clayton Bonus Document D C Clayton 21st birthday notes Signatures officers Gothic Signal CC Marconigram Notification of death of KG IV Signal CC Unclassified Message Condolence message Signal CC Unclassified Message Response from the Queen Photocopy Photo Album 1953 tour Document Record of Royal Tours to Hobart Author Rex Cox Photo Crew of Gothic Includes Queen and Duke of Edinburgh Clear Plastic Envelope --contents 1 Post card of SS Gothic 2 Hon Member's Ticket for D Clayton Amateur Sports Club of Victoria 3 Visiting Member's Card The South Australian Tattersalls Club 4 Free Pass South Australian Railways 5 Invitation - Honarary membership for D Clayton Colombo Club 6 Letter re Royal Sydney Golf Club Hon Mebership From Lord Althorp 7 Maori Haka Programme 8 Message to Crew of Gothic From Queen Document British Seamn's Identity Card D Clayton Document Seaman's Record Book D Clayton Document Passenger List SS Gothic 1952 Document Radar maintenance Certificate D Clayton Document Radio telegraphy licence D Clayton Document Magazine "Marconi Mariner" Nov/Dec 1953 Article re Gothic and D Clayton Clear Plastic Envelope --contents 1 Honorary Club Membership D Clayton The Adelaide Bowling Club 2 Honorary Member's card D Clayton Commercial Traveller's Assoc. of S. Aus. 3 Honoray Membership Card D Clayton Commercial Traveller's Club Melbourne 4 Honorary Membership Card D Clayton Royal Automobile Club Victoria 5 Temporary Membership Card Stock Exchange Club Adelaide 6 Honorary Membership Card D Clayton Royal St Kilda Yacht Club 7 Military Parade tcicket 8 Military Parade ---Vehicle identity card? Document Magazine "Marconi Mariner" May/June 1954 Article re Royal tour Document Magazine "The Communicator" Vol 8 No. 1 Easter 1954 Article re Royal tour Document " The Times" Pictorial Record Royal Tour Document "The Mercury" 23/02/1954 Queen in Hobart Cloth strip Piece of flag ? Commemorative Medal Royal Tour 1953/54

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The Queen in Tasmania

$ 23.99

The Queen in Tasmania celebrates all the pomp and excitement of two major royal visits to Australia’s Apple Isle.

Masterfully filmed by the Tasmanian Government Film Unit, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s first visit in 1954 was barely a year after her coronation, replete with official motorcade, military procession and a colourful performance from thousands of local school children.

Joined by Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth II explored Australia’s second oldest city in Hobart, visiting Government House and the Repatriation Hospital before venturing North West to take in the many sights and experiences of Devonport and Launceston.

Returning sixteen years later in 1970 with Prince Phillip and this time Princess Anne and Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II participated in the bicentenary celebrations of Captain James Cook’s legendary voyage to Australia, unveiling a memorial plaque in Macquarie Street, Hobart. The royal visitors  also travelled to Longley to witness first hand from the tree, Tasmania’s principle primary crop – apple harvesting. As well as ceremonial duties associated with the Royal Hobart Hospital, the tour took the royals to the race course in Launceston for some competitive equine excitement.

A unique step back in time, with engaging commentary and fascinating insight, The Queen in Tasmania details two remarkable royal tours, celebrating both the places and the people touched by such a significant and memorable engagement.

Cast : Queen Elizabeth II

Director :  Peter Richman

No of Disks – 1

Running Time – 40 minutes

Audio Format – 2.0 (Dual Mono)

Region – All

Format – Pal

Colour – Colour & B&W

Language – English

Catalogue No – DAVID3503

Aspect Ratio – 4:3

Subtitles – None

Price includes postage within Australia. Please contact us for International Shipping and multiple purchase discounts.

Click here to view all of our Tasmanian DVDS.

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Queen Elizabeth II arrives at farming property Connorville in northern Tasmania during her visit trip to the state in 1954.

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THE QUEEN VISITS THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

In a now famous reference to Queen Elizabeth;

‘I did but see her passing by, and yet I’ll love her until I die.’   Prime Minister of Australia R.M. Menzies. (1963)

Early in February 1954, a group of WWI diggers travelled down to Sydney to see the young Queen Elizabeth. She was  on her first  tour of Australia, following the coronation.  Describing the  occasion for the Blue Mountains Advertiser one old fellow said;  ‘ When I saw Her Very  Gracious Majesty the Queen and her ruggedly handsome husband…….a lump the size of a marble slipped up in my throat and nearly chocked me.’   He insisted that the most elaborate picture  published of  Her Majesty had not done her justice. Furthermore, he was astounded that  ‘…such a magnificent piece of Dresden like and Queenly humanity could stand up to the hypnotic gaze and thunderous cheering of millions of her fascinated subjects, and yet retain her freshness and charming personality.’   Another of the old soldiers expressed his admiration more succinctly; ‘She’s a bloody beaut.’

A TOUR OF EVERY TOWN

Meanwhile, Katoomba was preparing for its own  royal occasion, with a civic reception to be held at the Echo Point look-out. The  Mayor was to present Her Majesty with a book of scenic  Blue Mountains  photographs,  taken by the well known adventurer/photographer Frank Hurley.  I was fascinated to read that the images had been coloured by a local woman with her own royal connection.   Her name was Miss Vial.  She was the granddaughter of  William Vial, the man who stepped in and saved Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh from an assassination attempt at Clontarf in 1868.

Schoolchildren arrived at a newly spruced up railway station from surrounding villages. They were each given a plastic medal and a red, white, and blue balloon.

The Queen and her party arrived by train from Bathurst after  a stop at Lithgow, where the  bunting was out along the station platform. There was the obligatory motorcade along Lithgow’s main street, which was  lined with thousands of flag waving youngsters and their parents.

Lithgow’s special effort involved  a red, white and blue  striped ‘blanket carpet’ for the dais. It was woven at the local woolen mill. The carpet was later cut into small squares as souvenirs. I wonder if anyone still has a piece?

At  Katoomba it was estimated that 75,000 people lined the route from the station to Echo Point

Health and safety did not appear to be a major issue;

Crowds were massed around Echo Point, clinging precariously outside the safety fence at the cliff top, sitting on boulders to watch the welcoming ceremony.

And was it all a great success?

Well of course it was!  Under the  headline  KATOOMBA FASCINATED THE QUEEN,  a reporter waxed lyrical about the whole event, especially the fact that the royals stayed ten minutes more than was scheduled.

Their official welcome was the most beautiful of their tour……When the Mayor of Katoomba, Ald. A.F.C. Murphy, asked the Queen if she would like to walk down to the lower lookout for a closer look at the valley she stepped from the dais and accompanied him down the steps on the cliff face. There was a blue haze on the distant mountains, but as the Queen walked to the lookout the sun broke through the overcast sky. The valley gleamed in sunlight and the gaunt cliffs of Mt. Solitary facing the lookout turned red. The Jamieson Valley has never looked so lovely. The Queen said that her mother told her how beautiful the Mountains were, and she was sure her children would like to see them when they grew up.

It’s worth noting that the royals were away from their young children  Charles and Anne for six months on their extensive Commonwealth tour, which  included 58 days in Australia.

Then it was off on a scenic drive to Leura before  the royals headed back to Sydney.

NOTE – In April 2014 it was the Queen’s grandson William who stood at Echo Point with his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge.

I should add that although I live in the Blue Mountains now, I was a three year old living in Tasmania at the time of the 1954 royal tour. My siblings and I were taken by neighbours (we didn’t have a car) to see Her Majesty drive by in Penguin. I have only the vaguest memory of the occasion. She was waving from a dickie seat, leading many Tasmanian children to grow up thinking she had been in the boot of a car.

I presume my husband Rob saw her down south in Glenorchy, because his mother gave me a set of souvenir napkins.

FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT OR SHARE A MEMORY BELOW.

I enjoyed your article, Pauline. I remember when Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited my hometown of Brantford, Ontario, Canada in 1951, though I cannot recall any details as I was only 6 at the time. She returned in 1959, but I don’t believe there was a cavalcade at that time and I have no recollection of that visit. I also remember watching the coronation on TV. We were the only people in our neighbourhood with a TV, so the neighbours came to watch with us. The reception was poor – rather snowy – but I suppose we all realized we were watching an important part of history.

Thanks Diane. I’ve only watched the coronation in documentaries etc. Such an huge occasion. Sadly, I guess it won’t be that long before there is another one. Your comments prompted me to add my own (vague) memories of the 1954 visit to Tasmania.

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The 1954 Royal Tour of Queen Elizabeth II

  Queen Elizabeth II was the first, and to date, the only reigning British monarch to visit Australia. When the 27 year old sailed into Sydney harbour on 3 February 1954, she practically stopped the nation. Her arrival at Farm Cove, where Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag 165 years before her, attracted an estimated 1 million onlookers in a city with a population of 1,863,161 (1954 ABS Census). Those who couldn’t be there in person could listen to ABC radio’s nation-wide coverage of the historic occasion. Amalgamated Wireless Australia (AWA) helped make history when it filmed the Queen setting foot on Australian soil and relayed the footage to the Spastic Centre in Mosman – thus the royal arrival became the first televised event in Australia. 

The 1954 royal tour was a much-anticipated event. Planning had commenced in 1949 for King George VI (Elizabeth’s father) to visit Australia and New Zealand. However, a coded telegram received in October 1951 relayed the disappointing news that due to the king’s ill health and an impending operation, he would be unable to visit the antipodes as planned. Instead, the then Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, would come in his place. Her Royal Highness was at a safari lodge in Kenya, en route to Australia in 1952, when she received the news of her father’s death. She made haste back to England and by the time she came to Australia in 1954, the princess was our queen.

At the time, the royal tour of 1954 was the single biggest event ever planned in Australia. It was organised in the days before email, facsimile and mobile telephones. Official printed programs stated that all those responsible for an event were to synchronise their watches with the A.B.C. time signals at 9am each day. During the Queen’s eight-week tour of Australia, the only glitch was an outbreak of poliomyelitis in Western Australia, which saw the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, intervene to insist that the royal party sleep on SS Gothic and eat only food prepared on the ship (Ferrier, 1954, n.p.). 

The fierce February sun did not prevent Her Majesty from wearing her elbow length white gloves and decorative hats. Though the Australian sunlight is glaringly bright compared to England, she was rarely seen in sunglasses.

The royals visited 57 towns and cities during the 58 days they spent in Australia. They traversed the country by plane, train, ship and car from Cairns in the north, Broken Hill in the west to Hobart in the south. Their children, Prince Charles (aged five years) and Princess Anne (aged three years) did not accompany them on the exhausting trip.

During their ten days in New South Wales, they attended 28 major programs, with events scheduled for the morning, afternoon and evening.  Queen Elizabeth’s days varied from the cultural – watching a surf life-saving demonstration at Bondi Beach; to the civic – addressing 107,000 school children at three outdoor venues; to the constitutional – opening a session of parliament. The crowds were tumultuous, the press was effusive in its praise and every street the royals paraded along was festooned with decorations. 

The Library holds an extensive collection of original photographs of the visit which capture many official and candid moments. Below is a small selection - you can view three albums of photographs through our catalogue .  Dr George Bell donated a collection of photographs from the Queen's visit to Broken Hill, which have also been digitised.

Collection of photographs of the Royal Tour, 1954

The State Library’s collections relating to the 1954 royal tour include invitations, entry tickets, commemorative school exercise book covers, orders of service, menus and timetables. These ephemeral items would usually be thrown away after the event. They show the detailed planning that went into the royal visit, which aimed to give as many people as possible the opportunity to see ‘their queen’. 

Since her first visit in 1954, Queen Elizabeth II has visited Australia another 15 times. 

The Library would like to thank volunteer Anne Munro for typing all the original hand-written captions for the photographs.

Ephemera items from the Royal Tour, 1954

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