QUEEN’S VISIT TO TATURA, 1954

Compiled from what I can remember of my talk to the Tatura & District Historical Society Annual General Meeting, 2013. The talk, given sixty years after the event, was made “off the cuff” when the guest speaker failed to turn up.

In the 1950’s the Council Meetings of the Rodney Shire were lengthy, controversial, and often argumentative. I was only 28 years old in 1954, the Shire Engineer, and had learnt to do what I was told. At the meetings, if anything went wrong, had to be done, or excuses made, the motion in the minutes usually read ‘referred to the Engineer’.

So, as was to be expected, when the Council was advised that Queen Elizabeth would be visiting Tatura by road in order to board the Royal Train to take her to Echuca - the motion read- “referred to the Engineer”. I did not know what I was being let in for, but did have the nous to enquire as to what the budget would be for the visit- the Council was on an “austerity gig” at the time. I was simply told “She will arrive by car from Benalla, hop out, pick up her bags and get on the train- no worries- no budget”. Nothing happened for a while, then, it all started. The Acting Divisional Engineer for the Country Roads Board arrived and inspected the only fully sealed road into Tatura from the east, Ross Street. His boss, the Divisional Engineer had wisely gone on holidays! “That won’t do, we can’t have the Queen driving into Tatura down a 12 feet wide bitumen seal, what if there is passing traffic. That seal will have to be widened to 20 feet. You have got a month- should be O.K.”

At the same time faceless men were arriving at the Shire Office to indoctrinate the Shire President and Shire Secretary as to how they were to conduct themselves, and what the Shire President was to say in his welcome. His speech was to be printed, bound, and presented to the Queen. Now it appeared there was to be an official ceremony at the railway station. No one had told me, but the Council decided I needed some help and set up a small committee of local residents to assist.

About the same time as the road widening problem arose, another crisis occurred. It was the practice at that time for the mail to arrive by train twice daily. The mail bags were collected from the Railway Station by a young Tatura lady who drove mainly by accelerator and brakes. This day the accelerator worked, but the brakes failed, and the car continued on into the middle of the Station building. So, the building that was to greet the Queen, and was to be the venue for the introductory speeches, was now completely demolished.

The Railways Construction Departments were magnificent and had a complete new building erected - with a week to spare.

I also had my share of faceless men from Canberra. The first were to tell me that they had organized for all the district residents and school children to come to Tatura to see the Queen. We were to expect a crowd of over 10,000. Well, I had been thinking that I could just about accommodate all Tatura’s population under the shade of the huge Moreton Bay Fig tree growing in front of the railway station, but this was something different. A swift calculation and allowing 18 inches per person, we calculated we could accommodate 10,000, using the length of Hogan Street from the Ross Street corner to the railway station, two deep on both sides of the street. “Sounds right” said the faceless men, “but you will have to provide barricades for the full distance.” “There’s the budget gone” I thought. The Shire owns just three barrier standards and no rails.

It was then that my expensive engineering education came to the fore“Think laterally”. If I bought 500 star pickets and a mile of rope I could charge it up to “road works”- we could probably use them over the next ten years. We could set the pickets up along both sides of Hogan Street, the rope to control the crowd. I did not acquaint the faceless men with my thoughts, as I feared that they would not be too impressed with the use of rope and star pickets- a little infra dig.

More faceless men arrived, and I accompanied them climbing up on top of the roofs of buildings looking for vantage points for their security men. They left happy. All seemed to be going alright, the road seal had been widened, but the Acting Divisional Engineer was not happy, claiming he had told me to level out a small hump over an irrigation channel. “What if the Queen hits her head on the roof of her car when she goes over that hump. My name will be mud!” he exploded. I did check with the driver of the Queen’s car after the visit- “Didn’t even notice it” he replied.

A week before the Royal Visit, more faceless men arrived, and were distraught when they saw the beautiful new railway station which had been rebuilt to the same plan as the original building. “We cannot have the Queen and her party enter through that passageway”. The open passageway existed between the office and the waiting room and was about eight feet wide, half blocked by a section of wrought iron fence, the remainder of the space with a gate where the ticket collector usually checked the comings and goings of his customers. “We will fix that, we can cut off the grating, remove the gate and that will give you a full eight feet of width.” I suggested. “No good” said the faceless men, “It will be like sheep being drafted, you will have to come up with another suggestion”. I remember thinking, “Coming from Canberra I wonder if they have ever seen a sheep, let alone one being drafted”.

So more lateral thinking - “Could we offload the Queen at the Casey Street road crossing, or better still, in the Goods Yard?” Not good suggestions. Then I noticed for the first time a gate-way in the platform fencing, not far from the station entrance, and which in no way resembled a drafting race. The only problem was that it had been envisaged as a goods entrance to the platform and so was at truck tray height. The sight of the Queen picking up her skirts to climb up onto the platform through this entrance briefly exercised my mind.

So, we got hold of a few old worn-out timber railway line sleepers, built a ramp to rise up to the platform level, and backfilled it with loads of sand. It did not look too flash, but it was here that my committee came good. Tom Flanagan, with some lengths of red, white and blue bunting to cover the sleepers, and Eddie Mitchell who said, “We have just bought a new carpet for the aisle at the Presbyterian Church, and what’s more- it’s red”. The thought of the Queen’s high heeled shoes sinking into the sand on the ramp had occurred to us, so the red carpet was ideal. All was in readiness. The people of the town had excelled themselves, building archways across Hogan Street, and decorating the goods shed, and the faceless men were now conspicuous by their absence.

On the big day, everything was in order, archways in place, star pickets and rope down both sides of Hogan Street, the crowd ready waiting. Councillors, the Committee, Station Master, Shire President, the Shire Secretary, Lurline carrying baby Barbara and me and my father looking after Bruce, all dressed in our Sunday best, lined up alongside the red carpet on the newly constructed ramp. We heard the cheering as the Queen’s Daimler turned out of Ross Street into Hogan Street. All of a sudden, one of those summer willy- willies came through the open goods entrance, whipped up the red carpet and deposited it about 100 yards down the road towards the Butter factory. That day I was proud of the Rodney Shire Councillors - as one, they sprang into action, took off to the north, retrieved the carpet and re-laid it most expertly. I stood there dumbfounded. It was the last straw! After that everything went well, except - for the Tatura resident who souvenired the Royal Standard from the Daimler, an act which invoked comment from the National Press. The Queen walked up the ramp on the red carpet, was gracious in accepting the Shire President’s welcome, made her acceptance speech, shook hands with the Station Master, and she and Prince Philip boarded her train for the short trip to Echuca.

To Lurline’s astonishment she had seen that the Queen’s Aide was her cousin, Bill Cook a Naval Officer, but as he was just a step behind the Queen, she was too inhibited to try and attract his attention.

Despite all the hiccups, everyone seemed pleased with the day. The Council offered to pay me for my extra time and worry, but when I refused, they put on an official dinner, inviting the councillors, the committee and their wives. They also invited my father who had been Rodney Shire Engineer on two occasions in earlier years. I was presented with a mantle clock in appreciation of my work.

Shortly afterwards, Bill Young donated and delivered a large block of basalt from W.H. Young & Son’s Dookie Quarry. The stone, with plaque commemorating the occasion of the Queen’s visit to Tatura on February 1953 still stands in the Robert Mactier Memorial Gardens. The temporary ramp erected for the Queen remained until the railway station was demolished. We used the last of the star pickets thirty years later.

- Arthur Knee