Queen's Baton visiting Sydney
The Queen's Baton is to visit Sydney, with Olympic swimmers Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones as well as cricketer Glenn McGrath among its bearers on the way to the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Australian female rugby union player Shannon Parry will kick off the Sydney leg of the relay at Government House on Saturday from 3pm, with a walk to the Opera House.
Leisel Jones will hand the baton to Glenn McGrath on the steps of the Opera House and the two will be among the day's 30 baton bearers carrying it around the CBD to King's Wharf before it travels by boat to the Australian Maritime Museum.
Swimmer Ian Thorpe will carry the loop-shaped wooden stick up to its final destination in Pyrmont, where it'll end the day with free public entertainment headlined by Australian Eurovision singer Dami Im at Pirrama Park.
The relay continues on Sunday morning in Penrith before travelling to Jamieson Park in Sydney's north, Sydney Olympic Park and ending in La Perouse.
After leaving Buckingham Palace in May last year, the baton has spent 288 days travelling through the other 69 Commonwealth countries and territories.
It arrived in Australia from New Zealand on Christmas Eve and has been on show at iconic landmarks before the relay resumed in Canberra on January 25.
Prince Charles will remove the Queen's message from the baton and read it at the opening ceremony on April 4, to mark the beginning of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
