DUKE, DUCHESS DELIGHT DUBBO
PRINCE Harry and Meghan were the kind of guests country people like: warm, caring, genuine and not afraid to get their hands dirty.
They also brought gifts — homemade banana bread and a solid drenching of rain to the drought-stricken region.
Dubbo fell in love with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex the moment they stepped off the plane at the local airport yesterday morning.
The rest of the world fell in love with them when they met five-year-old Luke Vincent who, after a gentle request from Meghan for a hug, embraced
both roy- als. The youngster, who has Down syndrome, couldn’t resist reaching out and grabbing Harry’s beard, clearly fascinated by his facial hair. “I was very concerned once he started rubbing Prince Harry’s face and his hair, but Prince Harry was completely gracious and was so polite and realised what was happening and (Luke’s) infatuation with his beard,” Luke’s school principal Anne van Dartel said. “We can only thank him so much for treating Luke with such respect.” The royal couple visited the NS NSW regional city for a morale morale-lifting visit. The They visited a family farm hit by t the drought and were told of its impact and helped handfe handfeed some of the stock. M Meghan baked a loaf of ban banana bread to join the sp spread for tea put on by t the local CWA. The couple attended a community event back in town attended by about 15,000 people. Dubbo’s population is just over 40,000. As they arrived, it st started to pour but that did didn’t stop the prince from addressing the crowd. He s spoke of high suicide rates an and the need for a strong community to help others doing it tough.
“You must not silently suffer and, if I may speak personally, we are all in this together, because asking for help was one of the best decisions I ever made,” he said.
It was a touching break from royal protocol for Prince Harry to speak of his personal struggles with mental health. It was a topic he discussed with a group of teenage boys at a school later in the afternoon.
Used to the often empty words of politicians, farmers in the crowd said they could tell Prince Harry’s speech came from the heart.
“I just think that it’s lovely that they got off the beaten track and came out to Dubbo to speak with people affected by the drought,” Warren farmer Audrey Weston said.
“He offered to stay for two weeks so we could have some more of the rain.”
Their first official engagement in Dubbo was at the dedication of a new plane for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and they ended the day with a visit to the Dubbo College Senior Campus.
They had a perfect start to their 16-day visit to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand in Sydney on Tuesday. They will be in Melbourne today.