Trim Queen Elizabeth lectures Australians on healthy lifestyle

Mar 13, 2006, 11:59 GMT

Sydney - Britain's sprightly Queen Elizabeth had a thoroughly modern message for her porkier Australian subjects at the start of five-day visit: eat better and exercise more.

'Poor health is sometimes linked to the way we choose to live,' the queen said at the start of what may well be her last visit to Australia. 'But many of us can often take steps to eat better food or take more exercise.'

Her 15th visit, which got underway with a 21-gun salute over Sydney Harbour, is arranged around the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on March 15.

It's her 15th visit to Australia. She will be 80 next month and may delegate overseas duties to son and heir Prince Charles.

The queen's first visit to the former colony was in 1954 - an event she recalled when opening a renovation to the Opera House.

'The city was smaller, the skyline more modest and this magnificent building was no more than a dream,' she said. 'Ahead were decades of spectacular national growth; an immigration programme that was to change the face of Australian society and enrich the entire nation; a burgeoning of trade and cultural activity that would cement Australia's reputation as a generous and tolerant society, as a proud member of the international community and as a respected neighbour in her region.'

The opening of a colonnade at the Opera House, the first major external alteration since her majesty opened the national icon in 1973, also reflected the complete rehabilitation of Danish architect Joern Utzon.

The queen said the new colonnade confirmed the Opera House was not something sacred, but a living structure.

Utzon, now 87, stormed off the building site and left Australia in 1966 over disagreements with the project's owners. He has never returned.

But at the opening of the colonnade, which he helped design, he was represented by his son Jan, also an architect.

Jan Utzon, who oversaw the building work, said: 'My father lives and breathes the Opera House and as its creator he only needs to close his eyes to be here,' he said. 'But he feels great joy and takes much pleasure from the opening here today by Her Majesty the Queen.'