Royals won’t make it to Geelong

GEELONG has dipped out in its campaign to lure Royals Will and Kate, and baby George, on their upcoming visit to Australia.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will spend three weeks touring Oz and neighbouring New Zealand next month but won’t venture beyond New South Wales and Queensland to Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia.

Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons spearheaded a high-profile campaign to attract the Royals to Geelong, with a petition and formal invitation to Governor-General Quentin Bryce and the Duke and Duchess.

He earlier received formal acknowledgement from Kensington House of Geelong’s request but no clear indication the young Royal family might visit.

Lyons’ former life as a London-based paparazzi saw him embroiled in controversy over the ownership of photographs of Prince William’s mother Dianna, the Princess of Wales, as she lay dying in a crashed car in Paris in 1997.