From Royals to Republicans in 50 Years

By Allison Henry and Ted O'Brien
The Australian
3 February 2004

TODAY marks the 50th anniversary of the Queen's first visit to Australia. On February 3, 1954, 500,000 people gathered on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour to welcome Queen Elizabeth II to Australia.

It was the first visit of a British – and, by definition, an Australian – monarch. With people camping out overnight and cakes being baked in the shape of crowns, the nation was swept away with royal euphoria. On that first visit, about 75 per cent of Australians lined the streets of cities and country towns alike to catch a glimpse of their Queen.
We are now in 2004 and things have changed. Fifty years on and, according to Newspoll, nearly two-thirds of Australians want the Queen replaced as our head of state with one of our own, a fellow Australian.

So what has happened? Has the monarchy become unpopular? Are these republican aspirations part of some anti-British agenda? Or are we witnessing a new style of "pommy-bashing"?

The answers are, of course, an emphatic "no".

Everyday Australians are calling for an Australian as head of state because the nation has moved on.

When the Queen visited in 1954, we were overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic. The White Australia Policy was still in full swing, our highest court of appeal was the Privy Council in the UK and we used the British sterling system with its pounds, shillings and pence for our currency. Britain was our largest export market, as we were theirs, and as loyal children of the motherland we sang God Save the Queen for our national anthem.

Fifty years have passed and Australia has evolved. New generations with no link to Britain have been born and our immigrants are coming from every corner of the globe. The highest court in the land is the High Court of Australia, our currency is the Australian dollar, our major trading partners are the US and Japan, and as loyal children of the land down under we sing Advance Australia Fair.

Just as some things change, however, some things stay the same. Australians still like to line the streets and publicly honour those whom we admire most: the people who best display parts of the great Australian character. Every year we come out in our hundreds of thousands to honour our soldiers, firefighters, sportspeople and volunteers.

But no longer do so many come out to honour the Queen. No matter how much we may respect her, she, like her son Charles, is no longer representative of the Australian nation. No wonder we Australians want one of our own to fill the position of head of state.

Allison Henry is national director of the Australian Republican Movement.
Ted O’Brien is a member of the Australian Republican Movement’s National Committee.