The Beatles arrive in Australia

On the 11th of June, 1964 at 6am The Beatles arrived in Australia for the first and only time.

The Beatles waving to the crowds in Melbourne, Australia.

They landed first in Darwin to refuel and then on to Sydney where a crowd of 2000 fans awaited their arrival at Mascot Airport.  They were paraded in the pouring rain for the crowd on the back of an open truck.  They stayed at a hotel in Potts Point in Sydney, and attended a number of press interviews and photography sessions.  Ringo was replaced by drummer Jimmy Nicol as he was sick, but joined the band in Australia in time to do the last few concerts. 

"When we arrived in Sydney it was pissing down with rain. We got off the plane and they put The Beatles on the back of a flat-back truck so the crowd could see them. They were carrying umbrellas and wearing the capes made in Hong Kong. The driver was doing one mile an hour, and John kept leaning over and saying, 'Faster, faster!' but he wouldn't go any faster. I was saying, 'Go faster - it's pouring down,' and he said, 'These kids have been waiting here for twenty-four hours to see these guys.'
Nothing was going to make this big Australian trucker go any faster. By the time they got to the hotel everybody was blue because the dye in the capes had run and soaked right through; they all looked like old Celtic warriors covered in blue dye." - Neil Aspinall, Anthology