Royal Tour, Day 2: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry head to Dubbo

THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex are set to touch down in Dubbo this morning for the second day of their first royal overseas tour.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have just left Admiralty House in Kirribilli, trailed by security cars and police on motorbikes.

This won’t be the first royal visit to the regional town, though. Today’s trip will mark the sixth visit to Dubbo by royalty.

It is great that they’re keen to venture out of the major cities, but why go back to the same place six times rather than visit another regional part of the country?

While the royals are beloved across the nation, Dubbo in particular holds a soft spot for them.

The regional city, 400km northwest of Sydney, includes Taronga Western Plains Zoo, the famous local observatory, the old goal and more cafes serving freshly-brewed tea than you can count.

But a century ago, it was a very different story. Dubbo was a shanty town called Tin Town, deemed so unsightly that its townspeople tried to hide it from travellers, according to the ABC. The royals helped to change that.

In 1920, Edward, Prince of Wales, was the first to travel to the rural city to thank the communities of those who served in the Great War.

Then in 1954, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the town, bringing tourists a-flocking; the town only had a population of 11,000 by then, but 50,000 people rocked up to see them.

According to local paper The Daily Liberal, the first visit by a reigning monarch brought about an outpouring of patriotism the town had never seen.

Special trains were in service to transport people from every town in the region to where they were visiting, and army personnel were called in to control the crowds.

“Schools had photos of the Queen above the blackboard in every classroom and children sang the national anthem before sitting down,” said one resident. “God Save the Queen was played at the pictures prior to the screening of the movie and everyone stood up and sang it. In the great scheme of things, there was God and then the Queen — that’s how it was in those days.”
The last royal visit was in 2006, when Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, visited the town to acknowledge the work of local indigenous students involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards program.

Meghan and Harry are set to meet with local families, take part in a community barbecue and visit the Clontarf Foundation and Girls Academy. And, unsurprisingly, locals are pulling out all the stops.

The bush town is so afroth with royal fever ahead of their flying visit today it has produced its own royal beer.

Called “Dubbo Royale” and bottled in a red, white and blue can, it is a British-style lager combined with “fruity” US West Coast hops “for the Meghan component”.

“We call it marriage in a can,” Old Bank Hotel licensee Col Mackintosh told news.com.au from his front bar bedecked in royal bunting, a cardboard cut-out of the royal couple and boxes of the brew.

Pubs across town will be serving cans of Royale as locals take a day off to celebrate the fact Dubbo will host the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for almost five hours on Wednesday.

The Hunter Valley brewed beer will also be available on tap alongside a specially brewed Sydney royal beer, Young Henry’s “Get Royally Frothed”, at $6.50 a schooner.

Harry and Meghan will meet members of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, see sheep and cattle on a farming property and mingle with up to 10,000 locals in Dubbo’s main park.

The small rural city on the NSW Western Plains is buzzing with excitement about the visit, with interest ratcheting up another notch after Monday’s royal baby announcement.

Shop windows decked out with royal displays line the main streets, including a baby shop with a “royal nursery”.

Dubbo Mayor Ben Shields said the forthcoming visit was “huge” for Dubbo.

“It was big anyway because Harry and Meghan are one of the most popular royal couples,” he said. “And then we heard on Monday night about the little Sussex. That’s just the icing on the cake.”

— Candace Sutton

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