page_title: Royal visits to Australia
section_title: 1920s
hierarchical_section_title: Royal visits to Australia / Early 20th century (1901–1950) / 1920s
caption_attribution_description: English: Victorian Railways Royal Train. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. 1927. With State Car 4. Source http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/images/12800/12800-00001-000030-130.asp
context_page_description: Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the Royal Family to Australia, though only six of those came before 1954. Elizabeth II is the only reigning monarch of Australia to have set foot on Australian soil; she first did so on 3 February 1954. She was only 27 when she first visited Australia. During her sixteen journeys the Queen has visited every Australian state and the two major territories.
context_section_description: Edward, Prince of Wales arrived in Victoria on 26 May 1920, representing his father, George V (previously Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York), to thank Australians for their participation in the First World War. He was accompanied by Lord Louis Mountbatten.
  During the tour, his railway carriage overturned near Bridgetown, Western Australia. However, the Prince remained unharmed and made light of the situation, emerging from the wreck with some important papers and a cocktail shaker, an act which endeared him to Australians and caused them to give him the nickname the "Digger Prince".
  In 1926, Prince Albert, Duke of York, and wife Elizabeth had their first child, Princess Elizabeth—"Lilibet" to the family—who would later become Queen Elizabeth II. The following year they under took a Royal Tour without the baby. The Duchess of York was, in her own words, "very miserable at leaving the baby". Their journey by sea took them via Jamaica, the Panama Canal and the Pacific; Elizabeth fretted constantly over her baby back in Britain, but their journey was a public relations success. In New Zealand The Yorks enjoyed the local fishing in the Bay of Islands accompanied by Australian sports fisherman Harry Andreas.
  When they sailed into Sydney harbour on HMS Renown, they attracted Australia's first gathering of more than one million people. The principal duty of the Prince on this visit was to open the provisional Parliament House in Canberra, on 9 May 1927. They spent 12 days in New South Wales, seven in Queensland, four in Tasmania, eleven in Victoria, six in South Australia, six in Western Australia and three in the Australian Capital Territory, with the remaining 10 for travelling and recreation.
  According to a report by the director-general of the royal visit, Cyril Brudenell White, "the Royal Visitors had expressed the wish that when travelling through the States they might have opportunities of seeing and of being seen by, the greatest number of the general public. They especially desired to meet returned soldiers, new settlers and school children."  On 9 May, Prince Albert reviewed over 2,000 Australian troops with various air squadrons flying overhead. One aircraft, that of Flying Officer Charles Ewan, crashed; Ewan died that evening in hospital.
caption: Prince Albert, Duke of York, and the Duchess of York on the balcony of State Car 4 in Victoria in 1927.
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