The new royal princess will receive a cot blanket made from Tasmanian merino and a $10,000 donation to a possum sanctuary as her official gifts from the Australian people and government.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the blanket, sourced from Launceston’s renowned Waverley Woollen Mills would be embroidered with the Australian floral emblem — the wattle — by members of the ACT Embroiderers’ Guild.
The Healesville Sanctuary, part of Zoos Victoria, will receive the $10,000 donation as support to its research and captive breeding of the Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus).
“The Mountain Pygmy-possum is Australia’s only hibernating marsupial. There are fewer than 2,000 left in the wild,” said the Prime Minister.
“I hope one day the princess can visit Australia and hold a Mountain Pygmy-possum herself”.
In 2013, when Prince George was born, the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd donated $10,000 in honour of the royal baby to a bilby research & preservation program at Taronga Zoo, and sent a plush bilby toy and a copy of the Australian children’s book “Ten Little Fingers and Ten Toes”.
