Fairytale ending for Queen Mary’s royal homecoming
A real-life fairy tale will come full circle when the Queen of Denmark returns home, this time with a king in tow.
King Frederik and Queen Mary will end their whirlwind six-day tour of Australia with a highly anticipated visit to Hobart on Thursday.
This will be the first official visit by Danish monarchs to Mary’s homeland in more than two decades, and the first since their accession to the throne in 2024.
As locals prepare to catch a glimpse of the couple, crowds are expected to gather on the city’s waterfront for a scheduled welcome ceremony from 4.30pm.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Hobart resident Vivian Dance told AAP.
“Queen Mary is very special to Hobart; she is what dreams of marrying her prince.”
Hunter Street, on the city’s waterfront, will be closed to traffic to give spectators an unobstructed view, a sign that the city is in the grip of royal fever.
Local mom Ashley Blakesley plans to leave work early for a chance to greet the homecoming queen.
“I’m warning my colleagues that I may be off work for a while tomorrow,” he told AAP.
“If I get word that (Queen Mary) is at school or somewhere else, I turn off my computer and hit the road.”
He plans to bring with him a newspaper clipping from 2024 in which his son Harrison, along with other local students, planted a tree symbolizing Queen Mary’s coronation.
Mrs Blakesley visits the tree at least once a week during her regular trip to the playground where the tree is planted.
“I often look at it to see how tall it has grown, it makes me smile,” she said.
The self-described “keen observer of royalty” was lucky enough to meet King Charles but said there was no doubt Queen Mary was his favorite royal.
“I think it’s surprising that a lady from Hobart is now the queen of a country,” she said.
Travel plans for Tasmania are being kept secret but are likely to include a stopover for relatives, including the queen’s father, John Donaldson, a former professor of applied mathematics.
Born Mary Donaldson, the future queen grew up in the Hobart suburb of Taroona on the city’s southern tip.
Although the royal lodges are thousands of miles away, Queen Mary’s connection to the island nation is deep and enduring; This is a point Prime Minister Jeremy Rockliff made before the visit.
“Tasmanians and Queen Mary have a special bond and we are delighted that the King and Queen of Denmark will be completing their visit to Australia in our great state,” he said.
“This is a significant national event and it is fitting that Tasmanians will be able to welcome Queen Mary home in person.”
This tour follows a packed two-day tour of Victoria, which includes a green transition business event, a Danish-Australian art installation, sustainable and renewable energy development tours and some excitement at the MCG.
They ended their mainland tour with an evening reception at the Melbourne botanical gardens on Wednesday.
The Hobart stop will offer a personal end to the couple’s whistle-stop tour designed to deepen trade ties between Queen Mary’s adopted countries and indigenous nations with a focus on a shared, green future.
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