The Crown: Charles & Diana’s Australia Tour True Story & All Changes

Warning: SPOILERS for The Crown Season 4, Episode 6 – “Terra Nullius”

The Crownseason 4, season 6, “Terra Nullius” dramatizes Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) and Princess Diana’s (Emma Corrin) 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand. While Netflix’s award-winning historical series hits the main beats, key elements were changed or excluded to serve the dramatic needs of the episode. The real-life tour was indeed a huge success but impacted the Prince and Princess of Wales’ already shaky two-year-old marriage.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s anything-but-a-fairytale relationship began when the couple met in 1977. The future King of England was in the market for a suitable wife and under intense pressure from the royal family to find one, although his true heart’s desire was (and remains) Camilla Parker-Bowles (Emerald Fennell), who was then married. Despite being 13 years younger than Charles, the beautiful and properly aristocratic Lady Diana Spencer checked all the boxes as an ideal future princess, and she won over the royal family during a 1980 visit to Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Despite only seeing each other 13 times by Diana’s count, Charles did his “duty” and proposed to Diana at Windsor Castle in February 1981; the couple then made their engagement public later that month.

In the weeks leading up to their lavish July 29, 1981 wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Diana was hounded by the press and she moved into Clarence House to begin “princess training” at Buckingham Palace. The Crown depicts her isolation and lack of support from the royal family, especially Prince Charles who vanished on a tour for five weeks, and this began Diana’s habitual self-harm and bulimia. Diana also began to learn the true scope of Charles and Camilla’s secret relationship, but regardless, nothing could stop the fairytale wedding. Charles and Diana tied the knot and she became Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales.

The Crown season 4’s first three episodes detail the first few years of Charles and Diana’s relationship, but their intense troubles — and also their greatest moments together — truly began in episode 6, “Terra Nullius,” when the couple embarked on their triumphant 6-week tour of Australia and New Zealand. “Terra Nullius” is arguably the best episode of The Crown, season 4, but here are the missing details and real-life events behind the Netflix series lush drama.

Diana Brought Prince William But The Crown Made It Controversial

In The Crown, Diana insists on bringing Prince William along because she can’t bear to be apart from her baby son for six weeks and she argues that his mother’s love is what will instill humanity in the heir that the royal nannies and courtiers can’t give him. This is considered a breach of protocol and Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman) herself argues that when she and Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) went to Australia in 1954, they left young Prince Charles and Princess Anne (Erin Doherty) behind for five months. “And you think that might have had consequences?” Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter) countered, arguing Diana’s point.

Diana got her wish in The Crown and Prince William went to Australia with them; the episode shows they were separated in the first leg of the tour but Diana insisted on the itinerary being changed so she and Charles could visit William at the sheep’s farm he was staying at. However, in real life, Diana was prepared to leave William behind on the tour and not breach royal protocol. The change happened when former Australia prime minister Malcolm Fraser suggested that Charles and Diana bring Prince William along. The tour schedule was also not disrupted so that Diana could see William in real life, but she did tell the Australian press that Prince William loved his stuffed koala. Charles also enjoyed playing with William during the tour.

The Hardships Of The Australian Tour The Crown Didn’t Show

As in The Crown, when Prince Philip called Charles and Diana “the B-team” and said that Australia was too important to send “the understudy” instead of the Queen herself, the royal family did worry about how Diana would fare on the tour. As The Crown partly depicted, Prince Charles and Princess Diana arrived in Alice Springs, Australia on March 20, 1983, but, because of the torrential rains, the luxury accommodations they expected weren’t available. Charles and Diana had to resort to staying at the only suites available at a motor hotel.

The early part of the tour had rough patches; sick and not being able to cope with the heat (an admittance that broke royal protocol), Diana wasn’t able to climb Ayer’s Rock (now called Uluru), while, in real life, Charles also made gaffes like joking that William was being fed “warm milk and minced kangaroo.” There were also other down points that The Crown didn’t show, such as Diana publicly breaking down and crying in Sydney because of the overwhelming crowds. In the episode, the moment at the Sydney Opera House in front of a gigantic crowd was part of a montage of triumphant moments for Charles and Diana after their (fictional) conversation that temporarily patched up their relationship problems.

In real life, Charles did fall off his horse during a polo match and Diana did make a public appearance with a team of lifeguards at Terrigal Beach. The Crown didn’t show Charles body surfing at Bondi Beach and how the powerful waves almost depantsed the Prince of Wales. However, The Crown did also accurately portray how Charles and Diana dazzled the crowds, such as when they danced together at a glamorous ball in Sydney. There were genuine moments when the Prince and Princess of Wales were in synergy that the Australian press and people adored, and it’s estimated that Charles and Diana shook 2,000 hands a day.

Charles Became Jealous Of Diana

Diana’s growing popularity and all of the attention lavished upon the Princess of Wales, who the Australian crowds saw as “down to earth” and “relatable,” did affect Prince Charles. After all, Charles was supposed to be the focus of the tour and it was meant to be his first major outing as the future King of England. Instead, the crowds wherever they traveled went mad for Diana, and there were points when Charles was indeed booed and they insisted on seeing Diana instead, which hurt the Prince’s feelings.

In real life, as in The Crown, Prince Charles was angered when he was giving a speech and the audience laughed at Diana, who Charles thought was “pulling faces” behind him. Charles did say “that’s the thing with women, you never know what they’re doing behind your back.” However, while Charles was soured by Diana’s reception compared to his own, the Prince of Wales also later recalled that the times he, Diana, and William were together in Australia were moments of “great joy.”

Diana’s Popularity Affected Australian Politics

The biggest change that underwent Diana was that by the conclusion of the Australia tour, Diana had become an international star. The Princess of Wales did ultimately affect the plans of new Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke (Richard Roxborough), who wanted to lead his country in breaking away from the Commonwealth. Hawke was a staunch Republican who was part of the growing anti-monarchy movement in Australia that had been building since the 1970s.

In The Crown, Hawke tells Prince Charles, “She’s made us both look like chumps… No offense, but if it’d just been you, I’d have got my wishes. But then she comes along!” While that conversation was fictionalized, in real life, Princess Diana was so beloved by Australia that it set the Republican cause back two decades. In 1999, when a referendum was held on Australia becoming a republic, the country voted “no,” and this can be traced back to how Princess Diana won the hearts of Australia.

The Crown Season 4 is available to stream on Netflix.

About The Author