June 11th, 1964 was a big day for Beatle fans Down Under, as the group (minus Ringo and plus Jimmy Nicol) first arrived on Australian soil.
Their flight from Hong Kong landed at Darwin in the Northern Territory at 2:35 am to refuel the plane and give the boys a chance to stretch their legs. They spoke briefly with local reporter John Edwards:
At Mascot Airport in Sydney, anticipation was mounting among the hundreds of fans who had camped out overnight in hopes of glimpsing The Beatles. TV reporters spoke with some of the waiting throng:
Finally the plane touched down and discharged its famous passengers, who were good enough to ride around in a flatbed truck in a pouring and blowing rainstorm to wave at fans for a few minutes, sheltered only by umbrellas (George's blew away almost immediately):
After a drive to the Sheraton hotel in Sydney, The Beatles dried off a bit and then faced Australian journalists for a press conference. Here is a composite recording of the event, lasting nearly half an hour and assembled from five different audio and video sources:
They also chatted with Bob Rogers, who was covering the entire Australasian tour for radio station 2SM:
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