The Crimson Thread
Elizabeth II was the first reigning monarch to set foot on the stolen land we know as Australia. Her inaugural visit began on 3rd February 1954. At 27 years old she was less than a year into her reign as the new Queen of England and a mother of two young children. The Queen and her husband Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited 57 towns and cities over 58 days and the tour brought royal adulation to new heights in Australia, with almost three quarters of the nation’s population taking the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the youthful, white queen during her visit.
By then almost two centuries had passed since the Queen’s third great-grandfather, King George III, sent out secret orders for Captain James Cook to search for Terra Australis Incognita. This mythical, unknown continent was believed at the time to cover the entire southern hemisphere, and in the colonialist mindset, was free for the taking by whoever reached it first. Captain Cook was instructed that, if discovered, he should cultivate an alliance with who they referred to as ‘the natives’ and annex the country for the Crown. In 1770 the sailor and his men did reach a continent and ahead of setting foot on the soil, they fired guns on its inhabitants. Blood was spilled before the British flag was even raised. The land of Australia and its people became subjects of a distant empire who sought to erase them from their own history.
Australia has been forever shaped by its connection to the British Monarchy and the country would not be as we know it today without the Queen. During her tour, Elizabeth II was greeted with grandiose ceremonies, hundreds of thousands of people turned out to see her and she delivered a total of 100 speeches to her supposed subjects. Her visit was seen as an opportunity for the country to display its loyalty to the Crown and to symbolise the enduring bond between Australia and Britain. A bond once referred to by Sir Henry Parkes, a British-born Australian colonial politician as, “the crimson thread of kinship, which defines Australia as a bastion of whiteness within the region.” But the tour also reflected the narrative typified by the British Empire’s approach to its colonies, in that Australian history began with white arrival. Throughout her visit there was a conscious effort to hide the presence of First Nations peoples from the public eye. While there were a few token displays of Indigenous culture such as dances, demonstrations with boomerangs and spear throwing, the diverse and multi-faceted cultures which exist across the country were concealed. It would be another 17 years after the Queen’s initial visit for First Nations peoples to be officially counted as part of the population in the 1971 census.
Australia’s past remains deeply potent in the present and to this day, the Royal Tour endures as a point of historical pride for many of the places visited at the time and revisited in this project. For decades the Queen’s portrait has loomed over us in a silent, sentinel gaze from the walls of pubs, clubs and schools. Her image remains on the currency, towns have colonialist street names, murals depicting colonial scenes are painted on public buildings, there is a state named Queensland, and countless other monuments are scattered across the country honouring the figures who ‘conquered this barren land’.
But now the white queen is dead. The longest-reigning monarch in British history is gone. Her death was mourned all over the world, as those who lived and died under the weight of the crown went unmentioned. Instead, the world spoke of the Queen’s grace, her life of service, her enduring spirit, her dedication and commitment to duty. Her love of corgis. Yet even in death, she is a powerful symbol representing centuries of white privilege, the deception of whiteness’s superiority, the invention of race, the unbroken legacy of empire. And as her reign ended, a new one began. There is no escaping the haunting legacy of empire because its ghosts are repeatedly reincarnated by the hereditary system of the royal family. We have a white king now.
Australia’s connection to the Queen reflects a larger story in which colonial history is ubiquitous and the incessant honouring of it goes unquestioned. This serves only to romanticise Australia’s white history, obscuring the truth and trauma of what really happened, what has been lost and what continues to be perpetuated. The continent is home to some of the most unique landscapes and species, and to the oldest continuous living culture on Earth—all of which continue to suffer loss and sacrifice due to the ongoing impacts of colonisation. In challenging the dominant colonial narrative, we make room for alternative dialogues that question the version of history written by the so-called enlightened victors.
Each copy of this book is a unique edition with distinct archival material collected from 1954 © Erin Lee 2025 | Naarm | Australia
ISBN: 978-0-646-71386-1
