The four-day tour will see the Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay revisit iconic venues and places from Commonwealth Games history.

Australia will welcome the Queen’s Baton for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games for a four-day visit between Thursday 17 – Sunday 20 March.

The Baton will arrive from New Zealand and the Australian leg will commence on Thursday 17 March where Traditional Custodians of the Gold Coast, the Yugambeh language region and site of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, will welcome the Baton at a morning Welcome to Country Ceremony.

The Queen’s Baton will then visit the Broadbeach bowls club, site of the Lawn Bowls competition at the Gold Coast Games, which included the largest Para-Lawn Bowls program in Commonwealth Games history.

On Friday 18 March, the Queen’s Baton will visit Sydney, the site of the 1938 British Empire Games, then head to the Sydney Cricket Ground which served as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics competition at the Games, which was the first of five editions hosted in Australia.

Other stops in Sydney will include a reception at Admiralty House hosted by the Governor-General of Australia and a spectacular light projection of the Baton’s epic global journey so far, and the West Midlands, host region of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, onto buildings at Campbell’s Stores in The Rocks precinct, hosted by VisitBritain and the West Midlands as part of the Business and Tourism Programme.

While the visit to the SCG allows the history and past champions of the Games to be celebrated, a visit to the Parramatta Netball Club sees futures champions in action and allows the Queen’s Baton to inspire the next generation of Australian sport stars.

A highlight on Saturday 19 March will be a visit to the Longines Golden Slipper, where the Queen’s Baton will be paraded around the mounting yard.

Longines are a partner of both the international and domestic sectors of the Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay and a sponsor of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The final stop on the journey is to Melbourne, Victoria, the host of the 2006 Commonwealth Games and potential host of the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The Queen’s Baton will visit the Melbourne Track Classic on the evening of Saturday 19 March and the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday 20 March.

Further details with specific times and locations of media opportunities will be released closer to the event, including the addition of some further community activities.

Following the Australian leg, the Queen’s Baton heads to Belize on the next step of the journey to Birmingham.

The international route spans 269 days, spending between two and four days in each nation or territory, covering approximately 140,000 kilometres, with over 7,500 Batonbearers to carry the Baton in their community.

The relay will culminate across the UK with five days in Scotland, four in Northern Ireland, five in Wales and 25 days covering the length and breadth of England before the 2022 Opening Ceremony where the Queen’s message will be opened and read at the Opening Ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on 28 July 2022.

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will take place from 28 July to 8 August 2022.