How Diana won the hearts of Australians – despite a very dismissive prime minister – on her first royal foreign tour

On Princess Diana‘s first ever foreign tour, to Australia and New Zealand, she was just 21 with a ten-month-old Prince William in tow – and faced a barrage of anti-royal sentiment. 

She and Prince Charles touched down in Australia in March 1983. The Daily Mail reported at the time how Australian prime minister Bob Hawke didn’t even bow to the couple, though his wife Hazel did. 

Anti-royal Hawke at first dismissed their visit as not the ‘most important thing’ he would be doing in his first several months as the country’s new leader, historian Robert Lacey told in his book Battle Of Brothers.

He had only been elected earlier that year and Charles and Diana were originally invited by the former prime minister Malcolm Fraser. 

However, by the end of the trip they had won the hearts of many Australians.

Diana carrying Prince William as they arrive at Alice Springs Airport at the start of their tour in March 1983

Diana, wearing a peach-coloured dress designed by Bellville Sassoon, is greeted by the public during a walkabout on March 25, 1983, in Canberra

Diana attracted a lot of attention during the tour and large crowds gathered to see the princess. 

Lacey told how one photographer, Jayne Fincher, said: ‘We went to Sydney and wanted to photograph her with the Opera House, but just when we got there it was like the whole of Sydney had come out.

‘It was just a sea of people… and all you could see was the top of this little pink hat bobbing along.’ 

The profound impact Diana was having was also noticed by her husband who would be greeted by disappointed crowds when he walked to their side and his wife went to the other. 

Lacey told how Charles jokingly said: ‘It’s not fair, is it? You’d better ask for your money back.’   

The Prince of Wales puts an affectionate hand on Diana during their first tour together, to Australia

The Prince and Princess of Wales greet crowds during a visit to the Ginger Factory in Yandina, Queensland, in April 1983

The couple, with Prince William, arriving in Australia in March 1983. During the tour a well-known Maori agitator mooned the couple

Princess Diana, a ‘little pink hat bobbing along’ with crowds outside the Sydney Opera House

The trip even reportedly brought the young couple closer together and Diana would often hold Charles’s hand in the car. 

Though not everyone in the mass gatherings happily waved at the Prince and Princess of Wales. 

One protester, ‘a well-known Maori agitator’, mooned the couple, a confidential document revealed. 

The report was written by the then New Zealand High Commissioner Sir Richard Stratton, to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Diana and Charles pose for pictures at Ayers Rock (now known as Uluru) in the Northern Territory

The couple visiting Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne in April 1983

Charles and Diana standing outside Government House in Canberra where they met prime minister Bob Hawke and his wife Hazel

It read: ‘The professional, mainly white, protesters made little impact. A well-known Maori agitator presented his bare – and hideous! – bottom (allegedly the worst Maori insult, but I have my doubts!) to Their Royal Highnesses as they drove into Wellington from the airport.’ 

The document also contained details of Diana’s personal success on the tour and how ‘New Zealanders wanted above all to see the Princess of Wales, and they did, especially in the numerous ‘walkabouts’.

Sir Richard added: ‘Princess Diana’s clothes and homely (in the best, English sense) gestures towards children and Prince Charles’s witty speeches won particular acclaim.’

Prince William was only ten months old at the time and travelled to Australia and New Zealand with his parents. 

The couple stood riding a Land Rover at the Hands Oval sports ground in Western Australia as Diana accepts gifts from children 

Holding flowers, Diana talks to well-wishers with Charles as they arrive at RAAF base Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia

How the Daily Mail reported the tour in 1983

He stayed with a nanny at the Woomargama sheep station in New South Wales and Charles and Diana regularly flew back to be with him. 

William even crawled for the first time during the trip and both his parents were there to witness and enjoy the moment. 

The couple’s second son, Prince Harry, was born the following year on September 15, 1984, at the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in London.