Harry and Meghan bring joy to long-suffering farm families with gifts of rain and banana cake
Royal couple offer comfort to community hit by years of strife – and pass baking test with flying colours
In this remote rural town of Australia, according to locals, each day brings two virtual certainties: no one famous will ever visit, and no rain will fall. That is, except when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex fly in, bringing the British weather with them.
The Duke and Duchess, who visited Dubbo on the second day of their tour of Australia, were hit by torrential rain and thunderstorms, in the town’s first full downpour in months.
Dubbo, along with most of New South Wales, is suffering from severe drought, with virtually no rain in seven months and farmers enduring serious hardship as summer approaches.
But just as the Duke and Duchess arrived to raise awareness about the plight of farmers, they were caught in the pouring rain, with the Duchess holding an umbrella over her husband as he delivered a speech.
At a local school, where shivering schoolgirls had been standing outside for three hours to see them, they were forced to create a makeshift rainy day plan to greet them undercover instead.
One local said they had not seen rain like it for two years, with the Duke himself calling it “a gift”.
The area has been experiencing the most prolonged period of drought since records began in 1900, with farmers suffering a catastrophic blow to their livelihood.
Many have lost livestock and have had to import cripplingly expensive crops, with a troubling high suicide rate among farmers who face losing the homes their families have occupied for generations.
In their visit to Dubbo, the Duke and Duchess met one family who were battling the effects of the drought: the Woodleys at Mountain View, who are into their fifth generation of working farmers.
The couple carried buckets of cotton seed to pour on to hay for the cattle, and heard about the effects of the current “green drought”, which saw a small amount of rain three weeks ago give them green grass on top of dry, barren ground caused by years of low water.
After a tour of the farm, the Duke and Duchess joined the family – from grandparents Margaret and Richard to its newest member, 13-month-old Ruby – for tea in their garden.
The Duchess brought along a gift for her hosts, in the shape of a tin of Fortnum and Mason Royal Blend tea and a homemade banana cake. Benita Woodley, 20, one of four sisters, disclosed: “She [Meghan] said if you go to someone’s house you always bring something, so she did. She said she was worried about the bananas, that she’d put too many bananas in it.
“But the Duke said there’s never too many bananas.”
Alice Hall, 25, proclaimed the cake as five stars, giving it full marks for being moist – the highest accolade for baking in their family.
An aide said the Duchess “loves baking and just decided to take something along with her on the spur of the moment”.
The Duchess, who is expecting her first child in the spring, also spent time talking to Emily Carroll, the mother of toddler Ruby. “Meghan told me that she’s feeling pretty good so far, which is great, and that she’s running on adrenalin,” she said.
“She said they’re doing 76 engagements in 16 days, with maybe one rest in the middle. She’s made for this royal business, isn’t she?”
When it was time to leave, a few drops of rain had fallen. By the time the royal couple had got to their next engagement, a community picnic in Dubbo’s park, the heavens had opened.
Undeterred, the Duke took to a platform to make a speech, with his wife standing beside him holding an umbrella over his head.
“Sixty-four years ago my grandparents, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, were right here visiting the war memorial,” the Duke said.
“So it’s a great pleasure to be able to visit this area now and be able to report back how much life has changed in the Great Western Plains region since then.”
Addressing the crowd, he said: “You people are the salt of the earth, hard-working and as tough as they come. I know that life has not been easy. You have just lived through two years of drought.”
To laughter, he added: “Despite recent welcome rain, it is going to take a lot more and a long time to recover. You are all the toughest people out there, the most persistent, the ones who can weather the storm or the drought.”
At the couple’s first stop, Dubbo airport, they were given a particularly warm welcome from five-year-old Luke Vincent, who launched himself at each of them in turn for a cuddle and then began stroking Harry’s beard. “He got a hug from Meghan and then Harry bent down to speak to him and Luke didn’t give him any choice,” said his teacher.
‘You people are the salt of the earth, hardworking and as tough as they come. I know that life has not been easy’