THE Duke of Cambridge has paid tribute to Australia, describing it as a magnet for investors, visitors and those wanting a better quality of life.
As the royal couple's tour draws to a close, William praised his hosts for their legendary sporting prowess, flourishing arts and important role on the world stage.
William and Kate will stand shoulder to shoulder with Australians today when they join events marking Anzac day - a national day of remembrance for the nation's war dead, veterans and those still serving.
Speaking at a reception hosted by prime minister Tony Abbott at Parliament House in Canberra, William told guests: "Australia has a quality of life and a level of excellence that makes it a magnet: an enormously attractive place to live, trade, invest, and indeed just visit.
"The arts and sciences flourish; Australian sporting success is legendary; agriculture - from the traditional to the technologically most advanced - is hugely successful. This is a country that is in the front rank internationally.
"We have both seen all this for ourselves. Australia may be known as 'the Lucky Country', but often the harder you work, the luckier you get. Australians make their own luck.
"The distinct Aussie formula that has fashioned such a dynamic society is the source of admiration and envy around the world."
The royal couple's day began with a visit to the new national arboretum in Canberra, where they spoke to children about conservation projects.
Kate confessed she was sweltering in her bright green Catherine Walker coat-dress as she toured the attraction in the warm sunshine.
The innovative new national arboretum was created in an area of burnt-out pine forest following the devastating 2003 bushfires in Canberra.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article