Monday, March 9, 2015

Royal Visits to Tasmania

Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the British Royal Family to Australia. Even though constitutional ties were cut between Britain and Australia with the 1986 Australia Act, the royal family is still considered the constitutional head of state in Australia. Therefore, royal visits are merry affairs that involve parades, parties, speeches, award ceremonies, and also fun vacation tours. 

Elizabeth II is the only reigning monarch of Australia to have set foot on Australian soil. In total, she has made sixteen journeys and visited every Australian states. Here is a 20 minute video documenting Elizabeth II’s third visit to Tasmania in 1970. It is very obvious that the Tasmanians were very excited to see her, lining up the streets with Australian and British flags. 




Most recently, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge did a 2014 royal tour of Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately Prince William did not travel to Tasmania (which based on the Tasmanian newspaper The Examiner, it seemed like the Tassies were not too happy about that). 

No comments:

Post a Comment