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"Our Mary": Tasmania's Pride, Denmark's Queen

11 December 2024

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She might be Queen of Europe's oldest continuous monarchy, but to Tasmanians she's still "our Mary."

This has been the lesson learned by Denmark's Ambassador to Australia Ingrid Dahl-Madsen from her visit to Tasmania.

"I definitely sense that when I'm here, I hear a lot of 'our Mary'," Ambassador Dahl-Madsen said.

"When I was at the Saturday market and Salamanca market the other day and I was buying a few souvenirs to bring back and I was asked where I was from and I said from Denmark.

"Everyone talked about Queen Mary and knowing her and knowing her family and being very proud of what she's done and what she's achieved.

"It is similar to what we are in Denmark of what she's done for Denmark and how hard she works for Denmark today."

Ambassador Dahl-Madsen made the trip to Hobart to participate in a unique, historic ceremony.

The City of Hobart and the City of Copenhagen, celebrated Queen Mary's accession to the Danish throne alongside husband King Frederik X with a tree planting in each respective city.

Queen Mary attended the ceremony in Copenhagen alongside Lord Mayor Lars Weiss (pictured above), while in her former hometown, Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds and Ambassador Dahl-Madsen were joined by students from Queen Mary's former schools Sandy Bay Infant and Waimea Heights.

The Tasmanian floral emblem, a blue gum, was planted at Long Beach in Sandy Bay in Hobart, while in Copenhagen, the Danish national tree, an oak, was planted in the city's largest park Faelledparken.

While the ceremony was done to share the historic occasion between the two cities, it also had a practical purpose with both municipalities striving to tackle climate challenges.

Cr Reynolds said cities are at the front lines of climate change, with Copenhagen a global leader in this space, while Hobart has a target of increasing its urban tree canopy to 40 per cent by 2046.

"We know that trees are a really important part of tackling climate change because they do cool city streets with global warming, they help to clean the air and have habitat for biodiversity," Cr Reynolds said.

"So they are a really important part of the climate change response and many cities around the world are aiming to increase their street trees, their urban canopy to provide that cooler environment, to provide that cleaner air, and Copenhagen started that work around the same time as we did.

"We're both recognised the importance of it and we think we've also got things we can learn from each other as we develop our urban canopies."

As for when Queen Mary, formerly Mary Donaldson, would be returning to Hobart, Ambassador Dahl-Madsen (pictured above between Tasmanian Minister Eric Abetz and Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds) said she was in the dark as much as anybody.

"That I don't know," she said.

"Of course, it's part of her home and she has a family here, so Australia plays a big part of course for Queen Mary and her family.

"So let's see what happens."

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