PRINCESS ANNE The valuable royal lessons she learned from the Queen

As she undertakes a milestone tour of Australia, the irrepressible Princess Royal gives The Weekly an exclusive interview about a daring horse ride Down Under, how gender has never hindered her and, of course, the important things her mother taught her.

- JULIET RIEDEN

The Princess Royal is famously pegged as the British monarchy's hardest-working royal because of the hundreds of engagements she carries out each year, so it came as no surprise that Her Royal Highness was the first member of the House of Windsor to fly out to Australian shores when border restrictions lifted.

True to form, the three-day tour, followed by a hop over to Papua New Guinea to mark the Platinum Jubilee, was carried out at a frenetic pace. But with her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, by her side, the Queen's only daughter was in her element reconnecting with a part of the world she tells me she has always loved.

Anne was ostensibly Down Under for a working visit as patron of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC) for its bicentenary. To mark the occasion, the royal couple had been invited to the opening ceremony of the Sydney Royal Easter Show, spending the whole day at the showgrounds.

Palace aides then tailored a bespoke programme of engagements to touch on other key areas of interest for the princess, especially talking to members of frontline services for fire and floods.

“My husband's brother lives at Lismore,” she explained to The Weekly in an exclusive interview in England ahead of the tour. “Fortunately, up the hill. We've been kept in touch with the flooding.

“I have to say, it's one of the things about the Sydney Show which I think brings together so much of the impact of what's been happening, the extreme of the fires you've suffered and the floods. Sir Tim and I are working farmers so very much appreciate the opportunity to visit the Sydney Show.”