More than 500 of them came out to greet their future King.

A hat-less Prince Charles laid a wreath at the Cenotaph which overlooks the harbour which saw a greater aerial attack than Pearl Harbour back in World War II.

The little flags were missing but the enthusiasm was genuine as those who did brave the tropical sun had a rare chance to be pretty close to the “first in line”.

More would have turned out if it were his son, Prince Harry, and his fiancee Meghan Markle, one would imagine.

Still, Prince Charles seemed happy enough with his NT farewell after a Commonwealth Games-inspired visit Down Under.

And it had been some time since this writer had made acquaintances with the Royals, we were due a catch-up.

It was also stinking hot last time I caught up with Prince Charles’ mum, Queen Elizabeth.

I wasn’t very impressed with the Monarch back them but that’s before I watched “The Crown” series on TV.

Plus it was 1970, on the dusty Swan Hill Racecourse in Victoria, and I was only nine.

My family still has a blurred photo of the Queen in half profile at great distance among its family treasures.

I was only a few metres from Prince Charles today, Darwin does not do crushes, ever.

Among the hundreds of schools patiently lined up in the bright sunshine that April day in 1970, was the Cokum Reserve Primary School, of which I was among the 16 students.

We only had handmade Australian flags to wave that day, not the Chinese copies we enjoy today or not at all in the case of Darwin.

Unfortunately our allocated place on the racecourse was just outside what palace officials had decreed to be a safe walking distance to the racecourse grandstand.

The royal wave was carefully tucked away as the Queen and Prince Phillip made ready to alight their limousine, so we even missed that.

A few metres away the Queen stepped down onto the dust as she made her famous way along the crowd, gathering flowers and pleasantries.

Cokum did but see her passing by.

Our parents were much more impressed than we were.

They would often remind us it’s a long way across the ocean from Buckingham Palace to Swan Hill.

“He’s smaller than I thought he’d be,” one Darwin fan said in a much too loud voice today.

“How’s he not sweating?” her friend asked.

The Royals are much too well refined for such common afflictions, obviously.

Katherine Times