A crowd gathered at Brisbane airport to greet the pair as they crossed a square of red carpet that had been laid on the tarmac in their honour.
Australia wasn’t on the official itinerary for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but the pair made a flying stop on their way back to Europe.
William and Kate have visited Singapore, Malaysia and the Solomon Islands on their nine-day tour in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The trip has provided welcome distraction for Middleton, who was caught in a media storm after topless pictures of her sunbathing while on holiday in France were published by French magazine Closer and Italian mag Chi.
Yesterday, the couple were granted an injunction that prevented Closer from printing any more pictures and required it to hand over the files in its possession. However the ruling does not affect Italy or Ireland, the other countries in which the topless photographs have been published.
William and Kate are now waiting to find out if criminal charges will be brought against the photographer who took the pictures using a long-range lens.
Main image: The couple en-route to Australia on the Polynesian island Tuvalu, drinking milk from coconuts from a tree planted by the Queen on a previous visit (Getty images)
