THE QUEEN was once nearly assassinated on tour Down Under, according to an ex-Aussie policeman.


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Cliff McHardy, 81, explained that back in 1970 unknown attackers put a log on a rail track about to be used by the royal train, hoping to derail it and kill the passengers, who included the Queen and Prince Philip.

“The log had been moved on to the line in darkness, by one or two people who had prior knowledge of the area,” said McHardy, formerly a top detective.

“Had it been going at the speed it was allowed to go, it would have derailed, the railway people told us.”

Luckily for Her Majesty, the train wasn’t going at normal speed and the log just got stuck under the train’s carriage and slowed down to a halt.

Asked why the extraordinary events have not come to light before now, McHardy said that the Australian government had ordered a news blackout at the time and that he himself had asked the local paper, who gleaned some of the facts, to sit on the story.

“I took [the local newspaper editor] for a drive and I told him the story and I said I want your assurance that you don’t print it and he didn’t print it,” said McHardy.

Speculation as to the culprits include Australian anti-monarchy campaigners and the IRA, but the fact the crime remains unsolved was one of the motivations behind McHardy’s decision to come forward all these years later.

New South Wales police have only said they are not investigating the incident anymore and Buckingham Palace have said they have no record of the log.