Portrait – Moomba Queen, Beverley Stewart 1955

Summary

Framed black-and-white portrait of Beverley Stewart, wearing her Moomba tiara. Born in 1936, Beverley Stewart (now Jones) was the inaugural queen of Moomba, crowned in 1955. She headed the parade through the streets of central Melbourne, riding in a swan-shaped float on which she was flanked by the Moomba princesses. The tradition of Moomba Queen took its lead from the Miss Henley competition, which ran between 1919 and 1957 and was part of the Henley-on-the-Yarra regatta. That event, itself based in an English tradition, had enlivened Melbourne's Yarra annually since 1904 (with breaks during World Wars I and II). The two competitions for a female figurehead ran concurrently for two years, before Moomba Queen superseded its antecedent. In 1955, 19-year-old Beverley Stewart held both titles, and she later became Miss Victoria.