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National Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive

Queen Mother loves the Harbour Bridge

1958

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Queen Mother loves the Harbour Bridge

1958

  • NFSA ID486WBTB6
  • TypeMusic and Sound Recordings
  • MediumAudio
  • FormSpoken word, Advertisement (includes promotional)
  • GenresPatriotic, Speech
  • Year1958

'One of the wonders of our time. A magnificent monument to your progress.' The Queen Mother, in a speech upon her arrival to Australia in 1958 says that the Sydney Harbour Bridge is 'perhaps the perfect example of all that you've achieved' since her last visit.

The Queen Mother delivers a poetic tribute to the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of her speech, showing the place of awe that the Bridge took up (and still takes up today) in the consciousness of Australians and also internationally. She begins this excerpt of a longer speech by saying 'From where I'm speaking I can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge sweeping its great arch across the sky.'

It would have meant a lot to Australians to have our Herculean efforts in building the bridge acknowledged by The Queen Mother.

The cover image for this sound recording is a lobby card from Welcome Your Majesty (1958), produced by the Commonwealth Film Unit and a part of the Film Australia Collection. © NFSA. All Rights Reserved.

Notes by Beth Taylor

'One of the wonders of our time. A magnificent monument to your progress.' The Queen Mother, in a speech upon her arrival to Australia in 1958 says that the Sydney Harbour Bridge is 'perhaps the perfect example of all that you've achieved' since her last visit.

The Queen Mother delivers a poetic tribute to the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of her speech, showing the place of awe that the Bridge took up (and still takes up today) in the consciousness of Australians and also internationally. She begins this excerpt of a longer speech by saying 'From where I'm speaking I can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge sweeping its great arch across the sky.'

It would have meant a lot to Australians to have our Herculean efforts in building the bridge acknowledged by The Queen Mother.

The cover image for this sound recording is a lobby card from Welcome Your Majesty (1958), produced by the Commonwealth Film Unit and a part of the Film Australia Collection. © NFSA. All Rights Reserved.

Notes by Beth Taylor

  • Queen Mother: From where I'm speaking, I can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge sweeping its great arch across the sky. That is perhaps the perfect example of all you have achieved. You had not even begun to build the Harbour Bridge when I was last here. And now it stands, one of the wonders of our time. A magnificent monument to your progress.

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