Swedish royals touch down in Canberra on Sunday night, ready for a busy week of engagements in the national capital, Sydney and New Zealand.
Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden are visiting, with the Swedish minister for trade and international development, to "promote and deepen Sweden's bilateral relations with Australia and New Zealand".
"The visit promotes two-way trade and investment including in the areas of electrification, mining, healthcare, and innovation. Sustainability is an important overarching theme," the Swedish Embassy in Canberra said.
Yes, yes, but we all just want to see what the princess will be wearing. And watch her hug a koala at Tidbinbilla. Cue the fairy dust of royalty. We're here for it all.
Royal visits do promote goodwill between countries and they also spark joy. I've seen it. It's real.
People walk away from spotting Kate and Wills at the arboretum or Princess Mary at the National Museum or Queen Elizabeth among the flowers of Floriade with smiles so wide that they look like they may break their face. These fleeting encounters with royalty somehow transport us out of the everyday, even for a few seconds. And it's magical.
The Swedish royals are unlikely to be faced with the frenzy of the 2014 visit to Canberra by the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Kate and Wills to you and me) when the crowds were six-deep wherever they went. Or even Tassie's own Danish Crown Princess Mary who visited Canberra in 2011. And, of course, what turned out to be Queen Elizabeth II's last visit to the national capital, also in 2011. Massive turnouts everywhere.
I'm thinking the Swedish visit will be more low-key, à la when the Dutch royals, including glamorous Queen Maxima, toured Canberra in 2016. The local Dutch community got excited, but the visit was not insane.
Yep, I was there for all those visits and loved every minute, although covering a royal tour is often a ridiculous endeavor. While the public get to meet and greet, the media are kept at a distance, straining to hear snippets of conversation the royals are sharing with the common folk.
I thought I'd definitely win a Walkley Award after hearing Kate tell children at the arboretum in 2014 that "his cot's going to be full of little teddy bears" as she accepted gifts for Prince George. Booyah!
Sometimes, on a royal tour, there are just moments of true gold, such as in 2011 when a young, wide-eyed Canberra primary school student shuffled up to the arboretum to sing for Princess Mary as the rain poured down, and asked then Chief Minister Katy Gallagher "Are you the princess?". Ms Gallagher could only laugh and reply: "No darling, I'm not".
The whole Harry-Meghan blitzkrieg on the British royal family may be blowing a bit of the fairy dust away. I'm probably in the very small minority of people who, after reading Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, had sympathy for him and Meghan. Unlike a structured, royal tour where the media captures the official engagement and then walks away, Harry and Meghan are hounded by the media. All. The. Time. It would be hell on earth.
When they talked about reimaging their role in the royal family, Harry and Meghan may have been thinking about the European royals who seem to be able to do good works without having their every breathing moment recorded and dissected by the press. Who can still have some skerrick of normality. (Princess Mary used to bike her kids to school when they were young).
Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria married a commoner, her personal trainer and, despite misgivings, Prince Daniel has been described as "a loyal and productive" member of the royal family. It's sad Meghan and Harry weren't able to achieve that balance between public and private life.
