Julie Andrews to tour Australia for the first time
Julie Andrews is set to tour Australia this month for the first time (Toby Melville: Reuters)
British musical star Julie Andrews is set to make her first visit to Australia after seven decades in show business.
The 77-year-old stage and film actress will be touring the country this month telling her life story as part of An Evening With Julie Andrews.
Ms Andrews made her first London stage debut when she was 12 and played defining roles in The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
More recently she starred in The Princess Diaries and the Shrek movies.
But there will be no singing on her Australian tour after a throat operation affected her vocal chords 15 years ago.
"I was in denial for about a year thinking maybe I just wasn't healing as fast as I should," she said.
"When it was quite obvious that I was not, then I had to deal with it."
Since then, Ms Andrews says she has written childrens' books as a form of therapy and a new way to communicate.
An Evening With Julie Andrews premiers in Brisbane on May 18 and then goes to Perth, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne.
It will be hosted by American-born Australian actor, Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich von Trapp in The Sound of Music.