The Queen and three future Kings

The Queen is celebrating the start of the new year with a new portrait of herself and her three heirs.

The photograph of Her Majesty alongside the Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge and Prince George was taken in Buckingham Palace's throne room shortly before Christmas.

The Queen stands at the front of the new image in a white dress accessorised with a blue brooch and holding one of her iconic handbags.

Prince George, in tartan trousers and a white shirt, and Prince Charles - in a navy pinstripe suit - are stood together on a red-carpeted step.

Prince William stands behind his father, son and grandmother, smiling at the back of the picture in a dark suit and navy blue tie.

This is only the second time that a portrait of all four royals together has been issued.

A portrait in 2016 of The Queen and her three heirs

The first was released in April 2016 to mark the Queen's 90th birthday, with the picture then printed on commemorative stamps.

The youngest royal's elevated position in the new portrait is reminiscent of the 2016 photo, when then-two-year-old Prince George stood next to his great-grandmother on a blue and black step, holding the hand of his father, Prince William.

Australian gifts for the new Princess

Prime Minister Tony Abbott congratulated the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge:
"The birth of a baby is a great moment for any family and Australia shares this young family's joy," Mr Abbott said in a statement on Saturday night. "We wish the young Princess a long and happy life. I am sure that the Princess and her older brother, Prince George, will in time develop a deep familiarity and love of Australia, feelings the rest of their family already share."

The Queen of Australia's Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove said they were "thrilled" by the news: "We hope Their Royal Highnesses enjoy this special time as well as the life of fond memories they will build together as a family. We look forward to seeing the whole Cambridge family in Australia sometime in the future."

On behalf of the government and the people of Australia a gift is dispatched to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to mark the birth of the new princess.

A cot blanket made from Tasmanian merino wool has been sourced from Launceston's renowned Waverly Woollen mills. The blanket will be embroidered with the Australian floral emblem , the wattle, by members of the ACT Embroiderer' Guild.

In honour of the birth of the Princess, the Government will also contribute $10,000 to the Healesville Sanctuary, part of Zoos Victoria, to support the important work it is doing for the Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus). Healesville Sanctuary has established specially designed cool-room facilities to support the research and the captivity breeding of the species. The Mountain Pygmy-possum is Australia's only hibernating marsupial. There are less than 2,000 left in the wild.

Less than 2,000 Mountain Pygmy-possums live in the wild. The new princess will be invited to see the Mountain Pygmy-possum herself.

Tony Abbott: "I hope one day the princess can visit Australia and hold a Mountain Pygmy-possum herself"

Australia's government under former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gave Taronga Zoo's bilby preservation programme a $10,000 donation as a national gift to commemorate Prince George's birth on 22nd July 2013.

On last year’s trip to Australia Prince George met a marsupial named after him. At Taronga Zoo in Sydney, he was introduced to the bilby called George.

The bilby was in the newly-named Prince George Bilby Exhibit, officially opened by the Duke and Duchess on 20th April 2014, with a low glass screen that Prince George could peer over as he stood up, supported by his mother. The room was darkened because the animals are nocturnal.

Prince George met George the bilby in April 2014.

George, a three-and-a-half-year-old bilby, was named George two months ago to celebrate the Prince's birth.

Greater bilbies, nocturnal marsupials who hide in burrows during the day, are rabbit-like creatures with large ears that pick up sounds of insects and have long noses to sniffs out seeds and bulbs.

They were once common in Australia's grassy woodlands but have been driven to the verge of extinction by predators such as foxes and cats and competition from rabbits, all introduced to the country by European settlers.

With only 10,000 left in the wild in northern Queensland and Western Australia, a conservation campaign begun in the late 1960s has gathered pace in the last decade with chocolate Easter bilbies replacing chocolate bunnies in many Australian children's homes.

The official welcome

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC and Lady Lynne Cosgrove welcomed their royal guests TRH The Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge at His Excellency's Sydney residence, Admirality House, which has a splendid view overlooking the harbour and the Sydney Opera  House.

Prince George was given a giant wombat by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC in Admiralty House.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott: "I welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George to Australia."


Prince William’s speech at the Sydney Opera House

Thank you for your warm welcome.

Your Excellency, Sir Nicholas, Mr President, thank you for inviting me and Catherine this afternoon. There cannot be a more impressive place than the iconic Sydney Opera House to begin our first visit together to Australia. I know that New South Wales is a very special place, and Catherine and I are looking forward to seeing that for ourselves over the coming days.

My last visit to Australia – in 2011 – was at a sad and testing time for the nation. A cyclone followed by flooding had devastated lives and property in Queensland, and bush fires had ravaged the State of Victoria. I am sorry to return to find that, yet again, fellow Australians in north Queensland are coping with the aftermath of another destructive cyclone.

Australia has much to contend with at the moment: your contribution to the ongoing search for MH370 has earned respect in every quarter of the globe. Australia’s determined and leading role in the search is at the very edge of technological ability and human endurance.

You have also responded with great generosity in the past few days to the natural disaster afflicting the Solomon Islands, which is suffering dreadfully from floods and successive earthquakes. Australia has led the international response in a way that is testament to the strength of your partnerships with your neighbours, and the important role that Australia plays both regionally and globally.

This visit to Australia has been one that Catherine and I have been looking forward to for a long time. On my first visit here as an adult in 2010, I remember just how bowled over I was by Sydney: seeing the energy and diversity of this beautiful city, and understanding just how much Australia is the home of innovation, opportunity and possibility.

I was well prepared: the affection that my grandmother The Queen has for this nation is infectious.

Her Majesty spoke recently of how, since her first visit here sixty years ago, she has been privileged to witness Australia’s growing economy and flowering self-confidence.

For Catherine, Harry and me, born in the early 80s, we’ve never known anything else – Australia and Australians have always been for us a beacon of confidence, creativity in the arts and sporting ability.

Harry felt very honoured to be invited to the centenary Fleet Review in Sydney harbour last year; and I know how much my father enjoyed his visit here in honour of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. My mother’s deep affection for Australia – which you were so kind to reciprocate – needs no reminder.

I don’t think I could finish these brief words to you without mentioning one other family member, George, who is now busy forging his own link with Australia. Catherine and I were very grateful for the many kind messages and gifts from across the country that we received when George was born. I suspect George’s first word might be ‘bilby’ – only because ‘koala’ is harder to say. We really look forward to our time here together as a family.

Australia is an inspiring place, as this amazing Opera House shows so vividly, and I know that a truly unforgettable few days lie ahead.

Thank you.

Aussie republicans thrown back into the 70s

The arrival day of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George held goods news ready not only for the royal couple, but for all monarchists. The idea of establishing "a" republic in Australia has lost more support since the last opinion poll in February, when it was on a 20 year low, now the republicans are at a 35 year low and expected to lose more ground.

For the Fairfax media it must have been a tough decision to put this headline of the frontpage: Popular royals tip republic off radar. After another nasty comment in The Sunday Age, the Fairfax media should stop indoctrinating the readers that are left and just do what's the journalists' task and report without bias.

It is a start, that Mark Kenny wrote today

Support for an Australian republic has slumped to its lowest level in more than three decades just as royal enthusiasm reaches fever pitch over the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate.

 ... more than half of all Australians now believe the switch to a republic is unnecessary with 51 per cent opposing any such move and only 42 per cent backing it. That's down from a high of 58 per cent in 1999 and represents the lowest pro-republican sentiment in 35 years.

Just 28 per cent of respondents aged between 18 and 24 years, backed the idea of an Australian head of state, whereas 60 per cent said no to the idea.

In Queensland, monarchist sympathy is highest with 58 per cent in favour of maintaining the Queen as Australia's head of state. Only 37 per cent want that to change.

There is little comfort for republicans in the "don't know" category either. Just 7 per cent said they had no opinion when asked if Australia should become a republic – the lowest undecided figure since the 1999 referendum and second lowest since 1979.

 A hearty welcome to the royal couple and happy days in Australia!

Prince William carries Prince George to Australia, while Prime Minister Tony Abbott looks over Prince William's shoulder.

Ignorance rules the Fairfax media group

When it comes to die-hard republicanism, nothing matches the Fairfax media. Melbourne's daily newspaper The Age managed to totally ignore the visit of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in New Zealand. The print edition on Monday contained not a hint that the royal couple had landed in Wellington and had a stylish welcome. No tiny news item, no photo for example of the bare-bottomed member of the Defence Force's kapa haka group, which made it into practically every newspaper around the world. Well, not in Melbourne. The Age kept itself free from all that.

Die Welt, published in Berlin, put
Duchess Catherine on the frontpage

... and so did the Berliner Morgenpost

The Age's anti-royal policy dictated on Wednesday, that no photo of Prince George's first public appearance, his "royal crawl-about", should be seen by the subscribers of Melbourne "quality paper" (former slogan: "If it matters to you, it's in The Age", appropriately abandoned after sacking a good hundred of journalists in the past few years).

Prince George on top of another German newspaper.

Not even the fact that two gays father's had been invited to bring their daughter to meet Prince George did find any mentioning in The Age, otherwise a champion of the gay cause, so the paper claims.

You have to wonder how ideologically blind the editor must be ...

The Daily Mail offers its readers even a supplement with photos from New Zealand.

Royalty sells newspapers, but concerning The Age their republican ideology comes first. No wonder the circulation figures of The Age have been falling for years. It is not only the new media that have to be blamed for disastrous business figures.

On an much higher and massively significant political level was the reception of Ireland's President Michael D Higgins at Windsor Castle about which The Age has remained totally silent.


Mr and Mrs Higgins paid their respect at the Mountbatten memorial in Westminster Abbey. In 1979 Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, one of the earl's twin grandsons, Nicholas, 14, and Paul Maxwell, 15, a local employed as a boat boy, died in the explosion. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) had planted a bomb in the earl's fishing boat, the Shadow V, at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, in Ireland.

Britain and Australia reject republicanism

Three quarters of people asked in a recent opinion poll believe that the newborn Prince George of Cambridge will one day accede to the throne to which he is third in line, the ComRes survey for The Sunday Telegraph found.

Just 9 per cent of those questioned think that he will not become king because Britain will have become a republic - whereas a poll in 2011 found that a quarter of people expected a republic to emerge within 50 years.

Even among 18 to 24-year-olds, the age group most likely to hold republican views, today’s poll shows a solid 69 per cent believe that Prince George will one day become king.

The poll suggests that the majority of the country sees no benefit in republicanism, with some two thirds of those polled (66 per cent) thinking that Britain is better off as a monarchy.

Only 17 per cent wanted a republic instead.

As a coincidence Rupert Murdoch's newspaper The Australian published an article two days before the UK poll became public stating that Modern Monarchy depresses republicans.

[Australian Republican Movement (ARM) national director David Morris], "the man charged with leading the push for Australia to become a republic admits he's 'very depressed'.

"The ARM national director insists most people want Australia to become a republic when the current Queen's reign ends.

"In the early 1990s some 70 per cent of Australians wanted a republic while 30 per cent were monarchists.

"But since the failed 1999 referendum, support for a republic has dropped to about 40 per cent.

"'This week the media has taken a lot more interest in talking about Australian nationhood at a time of a UK event and yet when we try and talk about Australia (and a republic) the media has no interest,' Morris says.

"'It's very depressing.'"

Even in The Age's editorial Hooray! A new Royal. May he never be our king despite its vitriolic tone, depression shines through:

"Here, republican sentiment has largely been dormant since the 1999 referendum, absent a convincing champion to drive the quest anew. But the arguments for Australia to sever ties to the monarchy have only become more compelling as Asia has boomed."

Why the Asian economic boom should have anything to day with Australia's form of state is The Age's secret. As an independent nation Australia said No in a fair and free referendum in 1999, something most Asian nation never experienced. With its rejection of republicanism Australia could become a model for the emerging countries in Asia.

Prince George of Cambridge celebrated by Australia Post

Australia Post celebrates the birth of the future King of Australia with a stamp.

Australia Post is celebrating the birth of Prince George to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with the release of an instant stamp sheetlet.

The stamp features an image of the Royal couple leaving St Mary’s Hospital Paddington with their newly-born son and will be available in a sheetlet of 10 x 60c stamps from participating Australia Post retail outlets from Monday, 29th July 2013.

The Prince was born on 22nd July at 4.24pm BST. The newest member of the Royal Family was introduced to the world the following day on the steps of the hospital, in the arms of his proud parents. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have since named their son George Alexander Louis.

“Australia Post is delighted to celebrate the birth of a baby boy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with a sheetlet of stamps that captures the first public appearance of the happy family,” said Australia Post Managing Director and CEO, Ahmed Fahour.

“We expect the instant stamps will be well received as was the Royal Wedding instant stamp sheetlet in 2011. We encourage stamp collectors and followers of special events to put their orders in early to avoid disappointment.”

The birth of a future monarch is always a highly anticipated event and the child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who will be third in line to the throne after Prince Charles and Prince William, was no exception.

The sons of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II – Charles, Andrew and Edward – were born at Buckingham Palace, while Princess Anne was born at Clarence House. Today the preferred birthing facility used by the Royal Family is the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. The baby’s father Prince William was born there, as was his uncle Prince Harry.

A notice of the birth was attached to an ornate easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, with the media officially informed. There were royal gun salutes across London heralding the new arrival.

The designer of the stamp is Sonia Young of the Australia Post Design Studio. The associated products available are a commemorative cover, stamp pack, maxicard and a booklet of 10 x 60c self-adhesive stamps.

The Royal Baby stamp issue is available from 29th July 2013 at participating Australia Post retail outlets, via mail order on 1800 331 794 and online at www.auspost.com.au/stamps while stocks last.