Next weekend, in our spectacular desert heart of Uluru, history will be made as Queen Mary of Denmark begins her first official tour home since becoming the first ever Australian-born queen.
It will be a tour filled with all the ceremonial trappings of a Royal visit, but one with extra special significance as it marks the first time the former Mary Donaldson – the girl from Tassie who captured the heart of the future King of Denmark at the Sydney Olympics – will return home since she ascended the 1000-year old Danish crown two years ago.
The tour begins on Saturday at Uluru, where Queen Mary and King Frederick will be welcomed by Traditional Owners and members of the Anangu community. It will be a moment for the Danish King and Queen that will undoubtedly evoke memories of the 1983 Royal tour of the late Princess Diana and her husband, now King Charles, and more recently the 2013 tour by Prince William and Princess Catherine. The iconic photos of those Royal couples at Uluru are now etched in Australian Royal tour history, with every moment captured by The Weekly, just as this whole Royal tour will be.
The six-day Danish Royal State visit will then travel to Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart and feature a mix of official ceremonial banquets – where we will no doubt see spectacular tiaras and stunning gowns – and as many chances to greet the public as possible during walkabouts.
“There’s such a positive vibe … around the relationship of our two countries,” Danish Ambassador to Australia Ingrid Dahl-Madsen told the Australian Associated Press recently. “The Australian heritage of Queen Mary plays a big part of that.”
According to the Danish Palace, the aim of the visit is to “further develop the already strong relations between Australia and Denmark, both culturally, economically, and in terms of foreign policy” and will focus on nature and cultural conservation. The King and Queen will be accompanied by representatives from 55 Danish businesses and Danish parliamentarians with a focus on job-creating, economic-growth-generating green energy transition.
“Denmark and Australia are great friends, and together we are working to build a more sustainable, secure and peaceful future,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “This visit is an opportunity to deepen our cooperation across a number of shared interests, such as sustainability, renewable energy and innovation.”
The tour may be about green business for Denmark and Australia, but for Queen Mary, it will be the most heartfelt and personal tour of her life: when she returns not only to Australia for the first time as Queen, but to her hometown of Hobart, which will be a special focus of this trip. The poignant visit is likely to include private time for Mary to spend time with her family, including her beloved father, John, 84, who has been unable to travel to Denmark for some time and was unable to make it to see his daughter be proclaimed Queen in January 2024.
The Weekly has enjoyed a special relationship with Queen Mary for more than two decades. Following her romance with King Frederick from their famous meet-cute at a pub during the Sydney Olympics in 2000, their official engagement in 2003, through to a world exclusive interview in 2013 at the Royal Palace in Copenhagen. In that conversation, the then-Crown Princess admitted she misses her home country.
“I miss, of course, family and friends, and when I come back to Australia, I realise that I’ve also missed Australia,” she told The Weekly in 2013. “I see things that I haven’t seen for a long time, like the cliffs between Bondi and Tamarama. We love coming back to Australia. Some of our best memories together are from Australia, and part of me will always be Australian – it’s who I am.”
Next week, Mary will create new memories of her home – this time as our Homecoming Queen.
The Weekly will cover the tour on womensweekly.com.au and across all our social media. So tune in and follow this historic visit!
