A two-month tour of Australia by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1954 included a flying visit to the rural New South Wales town of Wagga Wagga on 13 February lasting 145 minutes.
Cheering crowds greeted the popular young royals as they stepped off their plane at the air force base in Forest Hill. It seemed all of the Riverina district had come out to try to catch a glimpse of the couple, much like everywhere else they visited.
Travelling in an open-top car, so everyone could get a good view, the royals arrived for a visit to the carnival at the Wagga Wagga Showgrounds.
Here they watched woodchopping and boomerang throwing exhibitions as well as an agricultural display of wool classing and sheep shearing before getting a closer look at the merino sheep.
In just over two hours they were gone, as the royal schedule was gruelling with events held morning, afternoon and evening.
After visiting 57 rural towns and all capital cities except Darwin, the tour finished in Fremantle, Western Australia on 1 April 1954.
