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Menzies RG: Our Royal Visitors (1954)

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clip Queen Elizabeth II opens Victorian Parliament

Original classification rating: not rated. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

This clip from a home movie filmed by Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, on 25 February 1954, shows the arrival of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh by car outside the Parliament of Victoria. They alight from the car and walk up some stairs on the red carpet past a guard of honour and surrounded by a huge crowd. The clip ends with a close-up of the Royal Standard flag.

Curator’s notes

by Elizabeth Taggart-Speers

This clip shows the eager crowds lining the streets to see Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh as they arrive to open the 2nd session of the 39th Parliament of Victoria. It is believed that up to 50,000 people waited to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty. As you can see in this clip, the crowd dressed appropriately in hats and gloves, as recommended in the Royal Visit Manual distributed by the Commonwealth Government of Australia.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were welcomed by the Usher of the Black Rod and, passing a guard of honour, were led into the Legislative Council Chamber were the Queen made a speech to open Parliament.

Sir Robert Menzies edited the footage himself and linked each separate segment that recorded a single event of the royal visit with a close-up of the Royal Standard flag that is seen at the end of this clip.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Queen Elizabeth II opens Victorian Parliament from the home movie Menzies RG: Our Royal Visitors as a high quality video download.

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ourroyal1_bb.mp4 Medium: 3.5MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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