 Their TV special "The Seekers Down Under" scored the biggest TV audience ever (with a 67 rating), and early in 1968 they were all awarded the nation's top honour as "Australians of the Year 1967".On a tour of New Zealand in February 1968, Durham advised the group that she was leaving The Seekers and subsequently left in July 1968.Durham returned to Australia in August 1968 and her first solo television special, 'An Evening with Judith Durham' screened on the Nine Network in September.