Islands entered the stadium, they received an enormous cheer from the crowd because of the recently fought Falklands War. The Commonwealth Games Ceremonial flag was brought into the stadium and raised. The Athlete's Oath was taken by Tracey Wickham. The final runner in the Queen's Baton Relay was Raelene Boyle, who handed the baton to the Duke of Edinburgh. The Duke read out the message which Elizabeth II had sent in the Queen's Baton, officially opening the Games (the Duke opened the Games because the Queen was unable to arrive in Australia in time to attend the Opening Ceremony). Because the Opening Ceremony was held during daylight hours, there were no fireworks to accompany the ceremony. However, both doves and colourful balloons of red, white and blue, were released. There were also supposed to be parachute jumpers, with parachutes of red, white and blue, taking part during the display at the opening ceremony, with the parachute jumpers landing within the stylised map of Australia within the stadium, but it was too risky, because of the extreme wind conditions, to have this segment as the strong wind might have blown the parachute jumpers off course if they had jumped (the parachute jumpers appeared during the Closing Ceremony, instead). The Queen, who arrived in Brisbane during the Games, presented some of the medals, including presenting the gold medal to Australian swimmer Tracey Wickham. The Queen also closed the Games. Matilda legacy following the Games The massive Matilda prop from the opening ceremony was relocated to Wet'n'Wild Water World, a water park in the Gold Coast hinterland. Matilda was dismantled for maintenance in 2007 but never reassembled. It was relocated and assembled at a Matilda fuel station at Kybong in 2011. See also Matilda (mascot) 2006 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony 2018 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony References External links Extract of the XII Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as broadcast by ABC Television, 1982. Part 1 Extract of the XII Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as broadcast by ABC Television, 1982. Part 2 Extract of the XII Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as broadcast by ABC Television, 1982. Part 3 Opening Ceremony Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies Ceremonies in Australia