I am indebted to one of our readers for pointing out that we can now visit the web pages The Queen of Australia . The Palace is to be congratulated not only for this initiative, but also the quality of the site. The site has an introduction, and there are four sections. These are on the History and Government of Australia, The Role of The Queen of Australia, Symbols and Ceremonies, and Royal Visits. There is also an excellent photographic gallery.
The site will keep you interested, and you can make comparisons with other pages, for example those on The Queen of Canada, and The Queen of New Zealand. Did you know, for example, that The Queen has come home to Australia fifteen times, Canada twenty three times, and New Zealand ten? Let me anticipate the usual embittered member of the commentariat using this to say The Queen does not visit us enough. Ironically, his or her somewhat schizophrenic desire will be ,at one and the same time, to stop all Royal Visits, but to be at the head of those to meet The Queen. Our republican commentator should first try to understand this. A visit follows an invitation, normally from the prime minister. No invitation means no visit. And if an invitation is made it then has to be fitted into an extraordinarily full schedule. Remember this schedule is for our remarkable Sovereign, a person at an age when most people are well and truly retired.
In any event, congratulations again to those who put this excellent site together, and many thanks to our investigative reader.