Living History
The Royal Tour 1954
I do not think my husband nor I will ever forget the queen’s visit in 1954.
My husband was a lifesaver with Dixon park surf club in Newcastle. It was not the main Beach in Newcastle, there were several others within a 5-mile stretch. The clubhouse was really only a corrugated iron structure perched on a sand hill, so it was more like a 'poor relation'. There was an ailing surfboat they hoped to replace but there was not much in the way of funds available sandwiched as we were between two more popular beaches such as Bar Beach and Merewether Beach; our needs were always afforded only the lowest priority with the City Council.
This being our lot, it was with great anticipation that we answered an add in the local paper put there by the Newcastle City Council, ‘for all interested local sporting groups to apply for permission to man a food stall in Hunter Street to cater for the crowds that were expected to gather to welcome the Queen. They said there would be people coming from the country who would want refreshment and all the shops in the main street where she would pas by would be shut and any profit to be made would be ours.
The club was told they would have to provide at least 300 buns with various fillings and also provide cordials, cartons of milk and cups of tea or coffee.
It was decided, as our flat was closest to the City center that all this would be prepared there.
I was 3 months pregnant with our first child at the time and really did not look forward to the plan at all. However , always a sucker for a good cause decided to grin and bear it.
All the preparations were to be done in the lounge room on a long trestle table with a big canvas almost covering (but not quite) the carpet square. About 6 wives and girlfriends of the surf lifesavers arrived in aprons with tea towels in hand and the boys arrived with about 3 big boxes of bread rolls, butter, various meats, salad ingredients, we set to work in a production line, The smell! Especially the onions! My morning nausea was still in full swing, and by the end of the day more so.
We started at about 7.30pm and didn’t finish till the last box was in place at our stall at 2am.
The boys had arranged a roster, first fellow manning the stall at 7am and onward for the rest of the day.
8 o’clock, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock came and went, so also did her majesty and Prince Phillip; a white face and a gloved hand waving, whizzed by our stall so fast it was all over in a matter of seconds!
But not one single customer! There were only a few stragglers of a crowd and they came fully prepared with picnic baskets, as the council had warned that the shops would be shut!
The surf club boys kept coming in and buying bread rolls, valiantly enthusing at the quality of the food and ordering copious quantities of coffee but no real customers. At the end of the day our total sales came to about 2 dozen rolls sold plus 3 boxes of stale rolls we had to get rid of. The streets were deserted so their was no one around to even give them away.
We all returned to our various homes, us to our by now odiously smelly flat, all silently pondering what fate led us to such an almighty let down and also wondering how we were going to dispose of 300 stale breadrolls.
The boys said not to worry. They would think of something, meanwhile they would store them at the surf club. Good! ‘Out of sight out of mind’
Several weeks went by, then a news item appeared in the local newspaper, in an area known as 'Murdering Gully’, where the local sewerage station is sited, a large collection of boxes of rotting breadrolls were discovered in the bush, the police would like to hear any information regarding the illegal dumping of these boxes!
Not many young men had cars in those days, I think in our club there were perhaps only one ore two. So-desperate deeds for desperate times! So we all stayed stumped! Nobody asked questions and just hoped the police were not too sleuthful on this particular occasion
Nothing more was ever said about the incident. We shifted away and now only see old surf club comrades at club anniversaries or funerals, There’s often a nod and a sigh when somebody might bring up royal tours The decrepit old surf club building has been replaced by a much grander establishment with all mod cons including overnight accommodation. Receptions for weddings etc., the club really is now on par with its previously more salubrious neighbors and no doubt in a much healthier financial position.
Still, don’t mention the 1954 Royal Tour to an old 'Dixonian’ surf club veteran!
Mary, Redhead, New South Wales
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