The Royal Historical Society of Victoria is conducting a tour of royal tours this autumn. Conveniently, it will be contained in an exhibition at their headquarters, 239 A’Beckett Street, opposite Flagstaff Gardens.
This will trigger memories among seniors about the 1954 tour, the first by a reigning monarch, when the newly crowned Elizabeth II arrived at Station Pier.
For many, the opportunity was just as Prime Minister Robert Menzies sentimentally expressed it during a later visit in 1963: "I did but see her passing by / Yet will I love her till I die".
So we lined the streets, waved flags and cheered. I remember seeing her respond tirelessly from the observation deck of a disappearing royal train.
Earlier in my life, royalty appeared as a colourful service uniform within which, in 1934, the Duke of Gloucester helped Victorians to celebrate their century. My schoolmates and I lined St Kilda Road behind barriers and police. I did but see him passing by, yet the occasion was deeply imprinted by Australian habits of loyalty.
History tells me, however that there have been significant rumblings of discontent. The Bulletin observed in 1901, when a royal visitor opened the first federal parliament, that attention seemed more directed towards "a small accidental prince" than the great moment of nationhood.
Royal visits began in 1867 with the arrival of Queen Victoria’s son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Royal fever, stronger than epidemics, took hold. There were frantic games of meet the prince. Ballarat built the Alfred Hall, to hold 5000, to which a huge procession followed him, after the local mayors and the state governor, in rival convoys, had raced about the streets trying to anticipate his point of arrival.
Younger princes came in 1881 and the Duke of York (later George V) helped to open the first federal parliament at our Exhibition Building in 1901. The next Duke of York (later George VI), opened the new parliament house in Canberra in 1927. It was calculated that in Sydney he drew the first million-strong Australian crowd.
In between the Yorks, Edward Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII and then Duke of Windsor, made an enormously popular visit in 1920.
The Royal Historical Society exhibition, which will be open from Wednesday, 17 March 2004 to the middle of May, 2004 provides insights into a special aspect of Australian identity. Enquiries 9326 9288.
