Why Australia is falling in love with the Tindalls: No airs, no graces. He’s just a guy who can pull off a pair of budgie smugglers and regularly splits his trousers. Paired with a kind-hearted Olympian

Budgie smugglers, banana hammocks, sluggos – whatever you like to call them – they are the great equaliser down here in Australia.

Sportsmen wear them, our former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was rarely out of his and Prince Harry pulled a pair over his chinos back in 2018 when he still had a sense of humour.

But it’s Mike Tindall, who made the swim brief his own on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and convinced his wife, Zara, to wear the female version – the ‘smuglettes’ – who, in a week when Australia officially put plans for a republic on the backburner, singlehandedly ensured that it might never happen.

If the royals want to keep Australia as the most loyal branch of Royal Inc, they’re doing the right thing by sending the Tindalls as ambassadors.

 Mike and Zara Tindall get to grips with life at Byron Bay, Australia

The Tindalls have been making a splash on their Australian holiday 

Mike shows off his pecs – and his budgie smugglers – to viewers of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2022

Mike is evicted from the jungle but Zara doesn’t seem too sorry

Zara and Mike at the Magic Millions Polo & Showjumping event on the Gold Coast. Angela Mollard says they are the right royal ambassadors for Australia

The Tindalls have genuine affection for Australia, says Angela Mollard – and Australians love them for it

Zara high fives with spectators and horse fans. She is an ambassador for the Magic Millions horse festival, which features races and bloodstock sales

These two are PLUs (People Like Us). Mike may have only shown us a peep of his budgie smugglers under his shorts while swimming and snuggling up to his wife at Byron Bay on Wednesday, and the pair are only here because Zara is on a paid gig as an ambassador for the Magic Millions racing event.

But their down-to-earth attitude, willingness to get stuck in and genuine fondness for the nation have endeared them to a nation of post-Elizabethan sovereignty sceptics. 

Zara has even said she’d move the family down here given half a chance.

The 21st in line to the throne and her bruiser of a bloke are the sort of royalty we’re up for.

No airs and graces. No silly stories about travelling with toilet seats and having your shoelaces washed by a minion. No tiffs over who borrowed who’s lip gloss.

Down here we like a dude who confesses he split his trousers while dancing with his mother-in-law and a woman who not only applied herself to become an Olympian but is so laid back about motherhood that she gave birth to her third child on the bathroom floor.

Here in the land of sunshine and mateship it’s relatability, kindness and an ability to tell a great yarn rather than looking fancy in a frock which will garner someone a loyal following. 

For a long time we thought Prince Harry was our guy.

But with our Assistant Minister for the Republic, Matt Thistlethwaite, announcing this week that our drive towards a republic is ‘not a priority’ following the defeat of our Voice to Parliament referendum, there’s clearly time for a fresh public relations push from Team Windsor.

The Tindalls, who met in a bar at Manly beach back in 2003, are well-placed to be the mascots.

Writing in The Australian on Thursday, author Tom Keneally, who initiated the Australian Republic Movement back in 1991, conceded that dreams of unmooring ourselves from the monarchy were now in the never-never.

‘And so the republic, much like Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet, has been put into a deep coma after consuming a death-imitating drug, delivered by our government,’ he wrote.

Intriguingly, Keneally, who won the Booker Prize back in 1982, went on to say he was won over by Queen Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, when he was dragged along to meet her by fellow Australian author Kathy Lette.

Noting that she spoke ‘knowledgeably and pleasantly’ about recent books, Keneally said that afterwards all anyone wanted to know was whether he was charmed by her.

The answer was ‘yes’.

While going on to argue that Australia should not be represented by a charming Englishwoman – ‘of whom there are legions’ – Keneally’s experience shows that even the most ardent republican can be won over by reason, humour, approachability and common sense.

The Tindalls have those qualities in spades. 

We adored how ‘Uncle Mike’ casually flung his arm around Prince George outside church on Christmas Day because every kid, would-be King or not, needs a fun relative.

We also loved how the Tindalls’ daughter Mia had clearly been spared a tutorial on hierarchy, evidenced when she took Prince Louis’s hand and marched forward with the Wales family into church.

 ‘Uncle Mike’ casually flung his arm around Prince George outside church at Sandringham on Christmas Day – a warmth appreciated in Australia

The Tindalls’ daughter Mia had clearly been spared a tutorial on hierarchy –  she grabbed Prince Louis’s hand and marched forward with the Wales family into church

William, Prince of Wales; Prince Louis; Princess Charlotte; and cousin Mia Tindall attend the Christmas Morning Service at Sandringham Church

Mike Tindall and Zara Tindall pose for a photo on the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco

The Tindalls seem happy to be affectionate in public – as at the Cheltenham Festival last year

The same rules applied at Wimbledon in 2022…

For George, Charlotte and Louis, cousins bring a trusted and much-needed sense of normality when your classmates are all desperately trying to be your friend on the instruction of their mums who want to be mates with Kate.

The truth is Australia is well disposed to royalty right now and proud as punch that our Princess Mary, a hard-working woman who had hitherto distinguished herself by being elected to the school council at her secondary college in Tasmania, is to become Queen of Denmark.

Critics may archly point out that Denmark is to get an Australian head of state before Australia gets an Australian head of state, but the rest of us applaud the job she’s done in securing a progressive welfare state’s ongoing support for the monarchy.

With approval ratings over 85 per cent, Mary has what the Tindalls have displayed all week: the common touch.