In 1867-8, Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, became the first member of the Royal Family to make a tour of Australia. Commanding HMS Galatea on its voyage around the world, Prince Alfred arrived in Australia in October 1867, first visiting South Australia before heading on to Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania. While warmly welcomed by many in Australia, he was subject to a failed assassination attempt at Sydney in March 1868. He quickly recovered and returned to Britain, reaching Spithead in June 1868. The voyage was resumed the following year with Galatea visiting Hawaii, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Like Australia, several of the places the Prince travelled to on the voyage had never previously been visited by a member of the Royal Family.
This book commemorating Prince Alfred’s tour of Victoria was presented to Queen Victoria in March 1868. Melbourne had grown to become the largest city in Australia and the royal visit was an enormous source of pride and a way for the city to show off how far it had come since its foundation in 1837. The book contains copies of newspaper articles detailing the progress of the tour and the various events which Alfred attended.