King Charles III and Queen Camilla will begin their first Tour of Australia as Sovereigns this week, and Queen Camilla will no doubt be wearing the magnificent Australian Wattle Brooch, a gift to the late Queen on her first Tour of Australia 70 years ago.
The Royal Visits to Australia
The Brooch is set with diamonds in the form of the flower of the golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha), the national flower of Australia, in pale and deep yellow brilliants, a spray of Australian tea tree blossom (Leptospermum laevigatum) in white brilliants and mimosa in blue-white baguettes. The Wattle Brooch was designed and made by the Budapest-born, Australian jeweller Paul Schneller and commissioned by the jewellers William Drummond & Co. of Melbourne.
The Australian Wattle Brooch was the Queen’s State Gift from the Government and People of Australia during the landmark 1954 Commonwealth Tour, where she wore the Wattle Brooch for a Banquet hosted by the Premier of Victoria at the Melbourne Exhibition Building and a visit to Flemington Races in Melbourne, as well as the official departure from Perth.
Over the next few decades, Australian Wattle Brooch made notable appearances during the Queen’s Tour of Australia in 1963 and also during the Captain Cook Bicentenary Tour in 1970, as well as the Queen’s visits to Australia in 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, and 1988.
Unlike the Maple Leaf Brooch and her New Zealand Fern Brooch, the Queen never loaned the Australian Wattle Brooch to family members and also wore it for occasions unrelated to Australia, including her annual Christmas Broadcast in 1967 and 1976, the Chelsea Flower Show, Royal Ascot, her 60th Birthday in 1986, and most notably the Wedding of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
However, the Queen did symbolically wear the Australian Wattle Brooch on her visits to Australia in 1992, 2000, 2002, 2006, and 2011, in addition to it being worn for receiving Australian Prime Ministers and Governors.
In the last few years of her life, the late Queen wore the Australian Wattle Brooch for a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in 2014, the Commonwealth Day in 2017, Christmas at Sandringham in 2017, the Royal Maundy Service in 2019, to mark the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force at the Commonwealth War Graves Air Forces Memorial in Runnymede and to receive Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Windsor Castle in 2021.
Queen Camilla has already debuted the Australian Wattle Brooch, which was worn for the Official Australian Portraits of King Charles III and Queen Camilla wearing their Commonwealth Insignia, which were taken by Millie Pilkington in the White Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace in June 2024. There is no doubt the Australian Wattle Brooch will be worn by Queen Camilla in Australia this week!
