FROM THE DESK OF Roland Rocchiccioli

The current visit to Australia by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex brought back myriad memories from the 1954 Commonwealth Tour, when The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh came to visit.

THE 1950s were a different time, and Australia was a different place. It was only nine-years since the end of World War 2. The horrors of conflict were being relegated to the pages of history, and the country, and its people, were on the march. The term baby-boomers came into the vocabulary. In the 15-years, 1945- 60, the population grew from seven-to-10- million. European immigration was atits zenith.

On 3 February 1954, The Queen became our first reigning Monarch to set foot on Australian soil. She stepped ashore at Sydney Cove and the population of nine-million followed and cheered her for 58-days. It was bigger than the Beatles. She visited 57 cities and towns across all states and territories, except for the Northern Territory. The travel statistics and her timetable are gruelling. It is estimated 75 per cent of population turned-out to catch a glimpse. The ABC archives hold recordings of women rendered speechless after having seen her. Lady Pamela Mountbatten was a Ladyin- Waiting. She recalled The Queen sitting at the window of the royal train in the middle of the night, in her nightdress, and waving to people waiting by the railway track.

I saw her, and I wrote in my hildhood biography – ‘And Be Home Before Dark – a childhood on the edge of nowhere’:

‘As luck would have it, Beria and I were in Perth at the same time as The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh and for the six days of the royal tour Western Australia came to a standstill. People slept out, or arrived early in the morning, to gain the best vantage points. On the night of Perth’s big royal progress, Beria and I joined the throng of thousands waiting to catch a glimpse of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh as they drove along St George’s Terrace.

Buildings were decorated with coloured lights and draped with the Union flag. The royal cipher, ER II, and giant flood-lit reproductions of the Dorothy Wilding portrait of The Queen hung from city buildings. The same picture of The Queen appeared on a stamp. She was dressed in a blue satin Norman Hartnell offthe- shoulder evening gown. Eight illuminated and decorated steel arches, topped with giant crowns and fitted with hundreds of coloured lights and various symbols of colonial devotion spanned the St George’s Terrace, lighting up the night sky and dwarfing the people below. Huge spot-lit globes of the world appeared to be suspended in mid-air. Giant boomerang-shaped banners proclaimed: ‘GOD BLESS OUR QUEEN’.

As The Queen’s motorcade drew closer I was overwhelmed by the rolling wave of noise. Everyone was cheering and brandishing flags. Moments before The Queen’s car passed at a snail’s pace I was lifted and seated on top of a taxi telephone box and I had a clear view over the heads in front. The motorcade was led by eight motorcycles and a contingent of the twenty mounted police. Smiling and waving to the cheering crowd, The Queen and The Duke were sitting in the back of a gleaming car. I was dazzled by the light bouncing off her diamond tiara and three-strand diamond necklace. The waving hand was encased in a long white kid glove, reaching way past her elbow. The blue of the Garter riband was a bold slash of colour, running from her left shoulder; on the other shoulder was a large spray of Australia’s wattle to compliment the yellow tulle gown created especially by Norman Hartnell for the Australian tour. The full skirt was heavily beaded in a wattle motif.

As suddenly as she had appeared, The Queen was gone, but the thrill didn’t abate. People were running along the street, chasing the car and cheering. The next morning, Beria took me to buy a gold-sprayed, lead coronation coach, pulled by eight hand-painted Windsor Greys. When offered a choice I opted for the larger. It was £5. ‘I’m sorry,’ Beria told me. ‘I would love to buy it for you, but I can’t afford it.’ I happily accepted the smaller of the two. It was tenshillings. Back at Nana’s I sat on the floor in the bedroom, playing with the coach.

Her reign has not been without blemish, however, Republican or Monarchist, it must be said, Queen Elizabeth II has fulfilled her promise, and done so with a devotion to duty unlikely to be seen again.

Roland can be heard each Monday morning on 3BA at 10.30am.

Contact [email protected].