[Royal Visit, Victoria, 1954: Pre-Release Footage: Reel 3]

The 1954 visit to Australia of newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II with her husband and consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was a cause of much celebration - and an occasion for much pageantry - in Victoria. Elizabeth was the first reigning monarch to visit Australia, and the young and popular royal couple attracted intense interest wherever they visited on their extensive Australian tour.

This silent, pre-release footage - much of which eventually comprised sections of the official Victorian film release - follows the visiting couple on their journey throughout the state; including numerous regional centres as well as major sites and events in Melbourne. It shows not only the “official” portrait of this historic royal visit, but also dwells on the reactions of the Victorian people; crowds of whom waited by roadsides and railways, on city streets and in small country towns, for a glimpse of the monarch.

As well as focusing on the history of the 1954 royal visit, the footage thus also gives us a unique and invaluable look back in time at some of the buildings, streetscapes, vehicles, cameras, fashions and crowd behaviours of the mid-1950s in Victoria.

Reel 3 focuses on the day the Queen and Duke arrived in Melbourne, and consists mainly of short sections of footage, much of which is also seen in other Reels of this Collection.

Detailed Description Reel 3:

Opens with aerial view of motorcade at top of Bourke Street, Melbourne, (probably leaving Parliament House). At 00:00:11:00 footage switches to Essendon Airport, with officials and police arriving in car and on motorbikes: 00:00:31:00 Crowds are seen waiting for the Queen’s arrival. 00:00:41:00 Arrival of Victorian Governor Sir Dallas Brooks. 00:00:50:00 Flinders Naval Depot Band. 00:01:07:00 footage of crowds along streets from moving car. 00:01:12:00 Queen and Duke walking across tarmac at Essendon Airport. 00:01:20:00 photographers filming the crowds from a moving car. 00:01:24:00 back at Essendon Airport, assembled sailors. 00:01:30:00 close-ups of various officials at, and leaving, Airport. 00:02:25:00 Queen and Duke exiting aeroplane. 00:02:34:00 Queen and Duke reviewing assembled sailors. 00:02:55:00 Queen and Duke in car beginning to leave airport, crowds running to view car. 00:03:07:00 close-up of luggage. 00:03:10:00 staff exiting plane. 00:03:35:00 drive past Essendon Town Hall with crowds on balcony of Town Hall and lining streets. 00:04:00:00 Crowds in street. 00:04:11:00 Queen and Duke on dais, Mayor making a speech. 00:05:08:00 street scene (probably in Essendon), with large crowd in process of dispersing. 00:05:18:00 cars leaving Essendon Town Hall. 00:05:35:00 crowd on steps of State Parliament shot from moving car. 00:05:51:00 crowds behind barriers lining CBD streets. 00:06:12:00 close-up of Henry Bolte, then leader of the Opposition Victorian Liberal Party, on street outside Parliament House. 00:06:27:00 close-up of Queen and Duke getting into car. 00:06:54:00 close-up of people in crowd with spires of St Patrick’s Cathedral in background. 00:07:37:00 State Parliament building, assembled police. 00:07:41:00 people watching from the top of the Imperial Hotel (still extant on the corner Bourke and Spring Streets, Melbourne), and a “Molina’s” sign can be seen (indicating Melbourne’s famous Molina’s Cafe). 00:07:49:00 close-up of workman affixing red carpet to steps of State Parliament; as a stray dog wanders past. 00:07:54:00 Queen’s car approaching State Parliament, crowds outside Parliament building. 00:08:50:00 a man vacuums the red-carpet laid outside Parliament building. 00:09:35:00 Queen and Duke exiting their car outside State Parliament. 00:10:00:00 the Victorian parliamentary Mace and Black Rod are carried up the steps of State Parliament, with Queen and Duke following. 00:10:38:00 Mace and Black Rod are carried down the steps again.