FOR those who were in Bendigo in 1954 the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit has brought the memories flooding back from that special day.
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For some people it is a day they will never forget.
Dorothy Williams was in hospital the day the Queen came to Bendigo having given birth to her daughter a few days earlier.
Rather than going to see the Queen, the Queen came to her.
“I was in hospital at the time with my baby daughter,” she said.
“They drove the Queen right up through the gates of the hospital near Lucan Street and the nurses shifted the beds to the window so we could all see the Queen.
“My baby wasn’t named at that point so I decided to name her Pamela after the Queen’s lady-in-waiting Pamela Mountbatten.
“My daughter was 60 the other day.”
Ian McCoy thanks his mother for getting him such a good look of the Queen.
“I would have been nine and I was in the Swan Hill Cubs, we all went down on the bus,” said Mr McCoy.
“Mum went down on the train and I wanted to go with her but she said no, you’ll get a better spot with the Cubs. And she was right.
“We were on the side of the Duke when she drove past in the front row.
“It was a very big day.
“We left at about 9am and got down to Serpentine and pulled into the park for lunch and then carried on to the QEO.
“We were there about two hours before the Queen turned up and it was fairly warm.
“The Cubs only had small hats.
“But there were so many people getting in position and it was a pretty big set up.
“Back in those days there wasn’t much security.
“It was exciting when she came past.
“Then we had the long trip back on the bus, of course there was no air-conditioning or anything then.
“It was such a big day.
“Reading the articles in the newspaper this week brought back the memories.
“At the time I didn’t think a lot of it but now I think it was a big event for the time.”