Editing The Seekers (section)

==Return to Australia and breakup==
In March 1967, the Seekers returned to Australia for a homecoming tour, which included a performance for [[3DB (Melbourne)|Music for the People]] at the [[Sidney Myer Music Bowl]] in Melbourne, attended by an estimated audience of 200,000.<ref name="McF"/><ref name="Miles"/> The ''[[Guinness Book of World Records]]'' (1968) listed it as the greatest attendance at a concert in the [[Southern Hemisphere]].<ref name="WhosWhoMuse"/><ref name="Guinness"/> Melburnians were celebrating the annual [[Moomba Festival|Moomba festival]], a free community festival, and many thousands were enjoying other attractions but are included in the crowd estimate.<ref name="Nim"/> The Seekers were accompanied during their 20-minute set by the Australian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by [[Hector Crawford]]. Film of their appearance was incorporated into their 1967 Australian television special, ''The Seekers Down Under'', which was screened on [[Seven Network|Channel 7]] and drew a then record audience of over 6&nbsp;million.<ref name="Miles"/><ref name="CreswellFabinyi"/><ref name="OzDay"/> It was also screened in the UK on BBC1 on 24 June 1968, and repeated on 27 December 1968. 

In January 1968, on [[Australia Day]], in recognition of its achievements, the group was named joint [[Australian of the Year|Australians of the Year]] – the only group of people to have this honour bestowed upon them.<ref name="OzDay"/><ref name="Lewis"/> They personally accepted their awards from [[John Gorton]], the [[Prime Minister of Australia]], during their tour.<ref name="Cockington"/> During this visit, the group filmed another TV special, ''The World of the Seekers'', which was screened in cinemas before being screened nationally on [[Nine Network|Channel 9]] to high ratings and is in the Top&nbsp;10 most watched TV shows of the 20th century in Australia.<ref name="Dale"/>

On 14 February 1968, during the New Zealand tour, Durham approached the other group members to announce that she was leaving the Seekers to pursue a solo career and the group subsequently disbanded. <ref>https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-seeker-who-found-international-fame-20210512-p57r7k.html</ref>Their final performance was on 7 July 1968, and was shown on BBC One as a television special called ''Farewell the Seekers'', with an audience of more than 10&nbsp;million viewers.<ref name="Miles"/><ref>{{Cite web |date=1968-07-07 |title=BBC Programme Index |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4d7ac1fbd8744df89f718f8d98673681 |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> The special had been preceded by a month-long season at London's [[Talk of the Town (nightclub)|Talk of the Town]] nightclub and a live recording of one of their shows was released as a live album, ''[[Live at the Talk of the Town (The Seekers album)|Live at the Talk of the Town]]''. It reached No.&nbsp;2 on the UK charts. Also in July, the compilation album ''[[The Seekers' Greatest Hits]]'' was released and spent [[Number-one albums of 1968 (Australia)|17 weeks at No.&nbsp;1 in Australia]].<ref name="Kentpre1970"/> It was released as ''[[The Best of The Seekers]]'' in the UK and spent six weeks at No.&nbsp;1 in 1969, managing to knock ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles (White Album)]]'' off the top of the charts and preventing [[the Rolling Stones]]' ''[[Beggars Banquet]]'' from reaching the top spot. The album spent 125 weeks in the charts in the UK.<ref name="LongWay"/>