[Royal Visit, Victoria, 1954: Pre-Release Footage: Reel 7]

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 our 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 collection of 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 7 shows us more of the crowds and celebrations in central Melbourne.

Detailed Description Reel 7:

Opens with crowd scenes and aerial shots of motorcade along Spring Street end of Bourke Street, then arrival of motorcade at Victorian State Parliament. 00:00:38:00 marching band playing along street in front of crowds in roadside bleachers. 00:00:53:00 out-of-focus street parade scenes. 00:01:09:00 Queens Guard marching band. 00:01:19:00 mounted police. 00:01:54:00 Queens Guard marches up Swanston Street from Princes Bridge (and a press photographer gets caught by camera and hurries out of shot). 00:02:17:00 - 00:02:44:00 footage of the massive crowd in Swanston Street. Various crowd scenes in Melbourne CBD and at Government House. Ends with shots of motorcade on Swanston Street with Melbourne Town Hall in the background, and police holding back the crowd on the street.