Warm royal welcome, down to a T

"Well, she's a Pom, they don't go out in the sun," I responded, finally looking up at the coverage which was dominating a good part of the evening news.

Suddenly our thoughts collided. We were back in February 1954, the year after Queen Elizabeth's Coronation and her first visit to Australia as Monarch with Prince Philip by her side.

The royals visited 57 towns and cities during the whirlwind 58 days they spent in Australia. They traversed the country by plane, train, ship and car from Cairns in the north, Broken Hill in the west to Hobart in the south, probably missing little Princess Anne and Prince Charlie back at Buckingham Palace.

" I had to wait in the sun for hours to wave to her at Bundaberg," Cathy said.

"So did I, all morning and much of the afternoon, at Townsville. It really is a small world."

My thoughts travelled back to that long, hot tropical day, embedded in my mind along with other momentous events such as President Kennedy's assasination, the Moon landing and the Day Elvis died.

Thousands of school children had assembled on some sports fields to spell out "Welcome to Townsville" in large letters in the hope that Elizabeth and Philip would glance out the window and be impressed as their plane approached the airport.

I hope they did, it was hard work, requiring much marshalling on the part of supervisors and then hours of patient waiting under a scorching sun.

Some kids fainted, but they were probably townies, not part of the small bush contingent from Stuart, like me. We had travelled into the city earlier that morning on the Railmotor, then trekked a couple of miles to the mass assembly point.

Some soldiers waiting in line to take the royal salute also suddenly keeled over.

I suppose they supplied drinking water, but I was used to wandering off for the day, drinking out of running creeks or digging holes in the moist sand during the dry season, so I don't remember being particularly thirsty. Just bored.

Finally the Royal couple arrived, young and in their prime, riding in the back of an open Land Rover, waving to the crowd. We cheered and waved back, then the long-awaited entertainment began.