Diana was expected to attend a series of fundraising events. As reported fundraisers calculated Diana was making more than AUD$17,708 an hour for good causes and hailed her public engagements as a success. The visit set in motion the biggest security operation since the Dalai Lama and the Pope visited Sydney. Although still "a member of the Royal Family", it was Diana's first visit to an original Commonwealth nation since the Wales's divorce. The trip came under the gaze of the international media.
Over 200 members of the international press checked in at Sydney's Hotel Intercontinental in preparation for Diana's arrival to New South Wales's biggest city. The charity dinner dance in which Diana was guest of honor was regarded Australia's most exciting social event in years.
As the Toyota Lexus LS400 drove Diana to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Double Bay in Sydney's harbourside eastern suburbs, royal reporter James Whittaker observed, "How anybody can look quite that good after flying non-stop for about 24 hours is extraordinary but she did."
Diana was traveling with just her lady-in-waiting. "That's it. No hairdresser, no butler, no valet. I mean, how deprived can you get?" On her arrival in Sydney, Diana left the Ritz-Carlton Hotel via a back door and went for a work-out at City Gym.
Months earlier, the then 47-year-old Marie Sutton, a former nurse at St Vincent's Hospital and formidable charity worker, was credited for playing an instrumental role in persuading Diana to come to Sydney. "Even the Prime Minister said I pulled off the coup of the century."
Diana was the honored guest at a fundraising dinner dance given as a benefit for the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, a respected charity involved in the fight against heart diseases. Diana, who had followed developments in the pioneering world of heart surgery, agreed to lend her support to the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
As understood, the late Dr Chang had acted as a second father to Hasnat Khan, then 36, one of Britain's leading cardiac specialists, when he was struggling to establish his fledgling medical career in Sydney. Diana impressed staff and patients at the Victor Chang Institute Hospital with her knowledge of the human heart. Fiona Koote who became Australia's youngest heart transplant patient in 1984 told the press, "It's amazing. She really does have a great knowledge of it. I was really impressed."
Sydney's social and business A-list bought 810 tickets for the exclusive gala charity ball. On the menu: beef and lemon curd tart. Around £530,000 was raised for the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Sydney’s clothes (Gianfranco Ferre dress, Gorgio Armani suits, Jonathan Ward frock) and hairdressing (Joh Bailey did Diana's hair) industries were said to be experiencing a boom as the town prepared to show its best side to Diana.
More than 300 reporters and around 500 onlookers waited over four hours behind barricades outside the Sydney Entertainment Centre, a venue more used to basketball games and pop concerts, to catch a glimpse of the visiting VIP. Diana did not disappoint. Dressed in an understated Versace electric blue satin, off-line-shoulder gown, Diana made a point of stopping her Toyota Lexus well short of the red carpet so that the public could have a lingering look as she walked past McDonald's to get to the entrance.
Sting gave a special performance of his songs 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Fragile' shortly after Diana arrived.
Host, then Chairman of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Neville Wran, also the former New South Wales premier, was known for his endless supply of anti-monarchist jokes. "I'm sure members of the British Royal Family are not so fragile that the word republic can't be mentioned in front of them. I find no inconsistency at all with being a republican and being involved in the Princess' dinner."
The following day, Diana visited the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute after touring the cardiac unit at the nearby St Vincent's Hospital. She was then guest of honor at the Commonwealth Day Council charity lunch at the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour (£125 per head) in aid of disadvantaged children throughout the Commonwealth. Some 1,100 guests munched their way through a selection of native flora and fauna including smoked emu and Illabo lamb.
Valentine Low, "Evening Standard': "This was informality, Australian-style, and perhaps one should not be surprised that most people started eating their first courses before Diana had even sat down. She was having drinks in the VIP room while the rest of the guests were halfway through their smoked emu, and one local journalist was shocked enough to remark: 'If we started eating at home before my mother-in-law she would have a nervous breakdown.' At the end of the lunch, in aid of the Commonwealth Day Council, Diana made an impromptu speech praising the sense of belonging enjoyed by Commonwealth nations and said: 'That sense of belonging is today (in 1996) focused on the children of the Commonwealth. There can be no better reason for gathering in this way."
Diana concluded her four-day public engagements with a 90-minute meeting with 100 patients at the Sacred Heart Hospice's day care unit and two other wards. Marie Sutton: "She visits the hospices in London a lot and I've been told by people who have seen her in the hospices that she's just magnificent. Her whole presence lifts patients enormously." Diana also made 300 well wishers very happy with an unexpected five-minute walkabout.
Hours before Diana was due to leave Sydney on a Qantas flight to London, via Bangkok, Diana visited the Mooring spinal unit at the Royal Rehabilitation Centre at Ryde in Sydney's north western suburbs, which was not included on Diana's official itinerary. Diana had asked to visit Ben Robertson, the son of a former equerry to Charles and Diana during the couple's first visit to Australia in 1983. Brian Robertson, who was also an Australian navy officer told the press Diana's visit had put the international focus on spinal cord injury and the desperate need for more funding to be given to research.
