The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh continued their six-month Commonwealth Tour in Australia when they arrived in Melbourne on this day in 1954, following Tours around the United Kingdom after the Queen’s Coronation. The stops in Bermuda, Jamaica, Panama, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and Australia were followed by visits to Ceylon, Aden, Uganda, Malta and Gibraltar.
Beginning in Sydney, followed by a visit to Canberra, a brief stop in Sydney, and the visit to Tasmania, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh arrived in Melbourne, where there were Official Ceremonies at Parliament House and the Town Hall before arriving at Government House.
The royal party flew from Launceston to Melbourne to begin the tour of the State of Victoria. It was estimated that 750,000 people lined the 11-mile route from the Essendon Aerodrome to Victoria’s Parliament House, where Her Majesty met officials of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, before travelling on to the Town Hall to be greeted by the Lord Mayor. Then it was off to Government House, the largest and most magnificent royal residence in Australia, where the royal party would make their base for this portion of the tour.
The following day, the Queen (wearing Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara and the King George VI Festoon Necklace) presided over the Opening of the Second Session of the 39th Parliament of Victoria in the Legislative Council Chamber at Parliament House, which was followed by a Reception in the Library and a massive Parade:
The Queen, narrowing her eyes a little as she stood in the sun on the steps of Parliament House, looked down upon the crowds which stretched into the far distance of Bourke Street, at the Sen icemen-some of them in scarlet coats-lined up in front of the House, at the people festooning every window, and listened to thousands of voices singing the National Anthem,
Then she and the Duke of Edinburgh exchanged a look, as they turned and mounted the second flight of steps sixteen of the total 33-to enter the House. Her frock was of heavy magnolia pult, was woven with pale golden wheat-ears, and at the waist was a sheaf of gold wheat ears. Her high tiara of parallel bars of diamonds gleamed like a lake of white light, and her neck- lace was three rows of square cut diamonds. She added large stud diamond earrings and a diamond bracelet, and riband and star of the Order of the Garter, the Lesser George and her diamond bow brooch on her left shoulder.
She wore gold kid sandals and her handbag was of magnolia satin. She covered her sun-tanned shoulders with a white mink stole. At exactly 2.15 the double doors leading into the Queen’s Hall at Parliament House opened, and the Queen was silhouetted in the outer doorway.
The Queen returned to Parliament House to open the Second Session of the thirty-ninth Parliament of Victoria in the Legislative Council Chamber. This event was followed by a gathering of 70,000 military veterans at Melbourne Cricket Ground during which those gathered serenaded Her Majesty with a rousing rendition of “Waltzing Matilda”.
The Royal Couple entered the Legislative Council to a fanfare of trumpets. Members bowed- low and women curtsied in a scene unparalleled in Victoria’s Parliamentary history.
Addressing Parliament, the Queen said: “After the warmth and cordiality of the welcome accorded to us on our arrival in Victoria we anticipate with pleasure our sojourn in this State.
It is seldom that the Sovereign is able to open Parliament outside the United Kingdom, and I welcome the opportunity to exercise this historic privilege in Victoria.
When I opened Parliament at Westminster late in 1952; I said that I looked forward with deep’ pleasure to fulfilling my long cherished hopes of visiting with i my husband my peoples in Australia, New, Zealand, and Ceylon.
Those hopes are now being fulfilled.”
That evening, the Queen (wearing Vladimir Tiara and Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Necklace) and Duke of Edinburgh attended a specular Ball hosted by the Governor of Victoria and Lady Brooks at Government House in Melbourne.
The day ended with a State Ball hosted by the Governor, Sir Dallas Brooks, in the enormous ballroom (10-feet longer than that at Buckingham Palace) at Government House.
The women among the 1,200 guests-most of whom were of the Queen’s generation- wore beautiful frocks, many of them with crinoline skirts. Jewels scintillated in tiaras, necklaces, and bracelets. There were frocks of rich brocades and satins and some of the youthful dresses, which were’ of bouffant tulle and chiffon, looked as if the wearers might be walking at Versailles as they floated across the lawns.
A frothing gown of while tulle, woven with a silver thread, was worn by the Queen. Flounces were set on the wide skirt below the long waisted bodice, giving an apron effect. The strapless bodice was shirred. Her Majesty wore her diamond and pearl tiara and diamond and pearl drop earrings and a magnificent diamond necklace with the flower-like clusters centred with large pearls.
The ballroom, State draw- ing-room, and dining-room, as w.’l as the entrance hall to Government House itself, were decorated with magnificent flowers. Window-boxes massed with mixed flowers were set tall along the walls of the ball room and great trees and greenery were in the foyer and beside the Royal dais. The hall, where a buffet table was set for supper, with crowns sculptured from huge blocks of ice, silver candelabra and lovely flowers decorated the table.
The ballroom was more than ever reminiscent of the State ballroom at Buckingham Palace-with its lofty walls, great glittering chandeliers, the musicians’ gallery high on the wall at the far end facing the raised dais with its State chairs-it brought to mind that other room, so famous a setting for glittering occasions. The dais was a rich royal blue velvet and the chairs of State-one of which was embroidered with the Royal Cipher-gave a colour note at one end of the ballroom. Even at Government House the guests were asked, after the arrival of the Queen, to dance the waltz which was played as soon as she was seated.
Following a brief visit to South Australia, the Queen (wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara and the Coronation Necklace and Earrings) and Duke of Edinburgh were back in Melbourne to attend a Banquet hosted by the Premier of Victoria at the Melbourne Exhibition Building among a series of engagements of the following days.
On 26 February, the royal party flew briefly into South Australia for a visit to Mount Gambier where the Queen and Duke were introduced to a twelve-foot-long carpet snake. Then the royal plane landed at Kanawalla to allow the royal visitors to make a two-hour visit to Hamilton, where a crowd of 13,000 gathered to give Her Majesty a right royal welcome. The Queen and the Duke made a circuit of the Melville Oval in a specially adapted open Land Rover to greet local children. They returned to Melbourne that evening by air.
The following day was mostly given up to a race meeting at Flemington Racecourse at which The Queen Elizabeth Stakes was run. The race was won by a horse, Cromis, soon to be dubbed “Australia’s best horse”, the sire of whom, Helois, had been bred and raced by the Queen’s late father, King George VI. After a brief visit to a Davis Cup tennis event at Kooyong, a State Banquet took place in the imposing Exhibition Centre, at which the Queen was presented with a rose bowl made of gold from Victoria by the State Premier.
She enthralled Melbourne when she went to the banquet a magnificent figure in a dazzling rich cream tissue frock. She won the hearts of the banquet audience when she told them how impressed she had been to see so many happy children in Australia on her visit.
And so the tour progressed with the familiar attendance at a Sunday church service at St Paul’s Cathedral; this was immediately followed by a visit to the impressive Shrine of Remembrance to allow the Queen to dedicate new additions which had recently been made to the memorial. Thereafter the Melbourne days passed amid a flurry of events including a theatre visit, a Women’s Lunch at St Kilda Town Hall, a State Ball and a Royal Garden Party (the fourth of the tour).
Towards the end of the stay in Melbourne, the Queen (wearing the Vladimir Tiara and Cambridge Emerald Parure) and Duke of Edinburgh attended a Ball hosted by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne and the Lady Mayoress at the Melbourne Exhibition Building, attended by Lady Pamela Mountbatten (in her Pearl and Diamond Tiara).
The Queen received a quiet and a restrained welcome from a crowd of 20,000 when she arrived at the Exhibition Building for the State Ball last night. More than a quarter of a million lined the streets from Government House.
The Queen, a beautiful figure in a gown of filmy, white, stood at the head of the steps leading to the building and waved to the crowd. “God save the Queen” broke out in a quiet chorus as the Queen and Duke left their car. The; 6000 guests invited to the ball began arriving shortly after 6. o’clock, and continued until shortly before the Queen arrived at 9.30.
