One of the most famous cruise ships in the world will be based in Australia for over 100 days during 2019-2020 summer.
Rather than having Sydney Harbour as a home base, Cunard's ocean liner Queen Elizabeth will be homeported in Melbourne.
The ship will sail on 6 round-trips from Melbourne, along with 2 trips from Sydney, with itineraries to South Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tasmania.
The record visit will almost double the planned 54-day season of QE in 2019. Cunard expects the liner to inject almost US$7 million into local economy.
The announcement of another major cruise ship to be based in Melbourne (following Carnival Legend) comes as port of Sydney struggles to cope with the large number of cruise liners visiting Australia.