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Remembering Queen Elizabeth II in Bourke


Bourke student Warren Turnbull (right) asks if the Queen had her crown with her in Australia. PHOTO ALAMY

Queen Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022


Since receiving the news on the weekend of the sudden death of Queen Elizabeth II, we have all had time to reflect on what the Queen meant to all of us.

The day the Queen came to town was a day that those who were present will never forget.

It was March 22, 2000, and Bourke was chosen as one of the stops during the her Australian tour.

Her itinerary included a tour of the Bourke Public School and an address to the throng of 3,000 people gathered in Central Park.

Souvenir Edition of The Western Herald from 30 March 2000.

But there were a few surprises along the way - the controversy which made national headlines when school principal, Paul Loxley, was accused of touching the Queen, the ‘rest stop’ for Her Majesty at Bob Culhane’s house and a mother who snatched her toddler’s bouquet to present it to the Queen - and in the process became something of a local legend herself.

It was also a day when Bourke could present itself as a town worthy of royalty. The visit came during some tough times, with crime giving Bourke a notoriety that still lingers today.

The day the Queen came, however, put Bourke into the national conversation for all the right reasons

Paul Loxley, also a shire councillor at the time, recalls how he learnt through then Premier Bob Carr, that Bourke Public School and Bourke Shire Council had been chosen to host Queen Elizabeth that day.

“It was wonderful,” Mr Loxley said.

“Initially we were told as a council that we were having a VIP visitor and we had to go through different stages, and it finally dawned on us that we were getting the Queen.

“The focal point was to be the Burke Public School, which was magnificent.

“We all waited with bated breath and when she came to the school, she was met at front gate by the school captains, Premier Bob Carr, and his wife Helena.

“There were three points where photographers could take pictures and we all walked through the gates into the hall area. The Queen first met some of the mums and then Phil Sullivan and Gary Currey did a presentation on Aboriginal artefacts, including a Nulla Nulla.

“I remember walking out of the room with Her Majesty and she turned to me and in a voice that could only belong to the Queen and said, ‘If you got hit over the head with one of those you wouldn’t know too much about it!’ and I said ‘No Your Majesty, you wouldn’t’.



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