Summary

This medal was issued for schools to commemorate the visit of the Queen visited to Victoria from 24 February to 9 March 1954. The first reigning monarch to tour Australia, she arrived in Sydney with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh on 3 February 1954 and departed the country from Fremantle on 1 April. She was met with adulation wherever she went.
Issued by Government of Victoria.

Physical Description

Medal has conjoined busts, Queen crowned, Duke head bare, facing right; around, QUEEN ELIZABETH II DUKE OF EDINBURGH; below in tiny letters the mint name, STOKES MELB. The medal is attached by a metal loop to a bar with pin for wearing, PRESENTED TO THE / CHILDREN BY THE / GOVERNMENT OF VICTORIA The back of the medal has, below a crown, E II R / ROYAL VISIT / 1954 / VICTORIA The back of the bar contains the mint name in small letters, STOKES MELB.

Obverse Description

Medal has conjoined busts, Queen crowned, Duke head bare, facing right; around, QUEEN ELIZABETH II DUKE OF EDINBURGH; below in tiny letters the mint name, STOKES MELB. The medal is attached by a metal loop to a bar with pin for wearing, PRESENTED TO THE / CHILDREN BY THE / GOVERNMENT OF VICTORIA

Reverse Description

Below a crown, E II R / ROYAL VISIT / 1954 / VICTORIA The back of the bar contains the mint name in small letters, STOKES MELB.

Edge Description

Plain

Significance

In 1954 Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to tour Australia. She arrived in Sydney with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh on 3 February 1954 and departed the country from Fremantle on 1 April. The visit was tremendously popular. The attractive young Queen was the first royal to tour Australia in twenty years. She graciously endured a grueling schedule of 33 flights, covering 10,000 miles by air, and 207 car trips, covering 2,000 miles by road and taking 130 hours. She visited approximately 70 country towns, all capital cities except Darwin, and made about 100 speeches.

The organisation charged with organising and administering the visit was the Royal Visit Organisation, created within the Prime Minister's Department and facilitated by the Director-General, Sydney. The Right Hon E J Harrison, MP, Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister of State for Defence Production was appointed as Minister-in-Charge of the Royal Visit. The headquarters of the organisation was established in Sydney at Victoria Barracks, Paddington.

Sydney was the Queen's first stop on her tour of Australia. Police estimated that 1,000,000 people lined the city streets and Farm Cove. At least another half million crowded every foreshore vantage point from the Heads to the Bridge. The Queen met similar adulation in Victoria, which she visited from 24 February to 9 March.

After the vastness of the tour, Prime Minister Menzies proposed that future royal visits should be 'less formal' since the effort might dissuade future visits. Therefore future visits had a less formal structure.

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