Rochester was among several country Victorian towns to host a visit by the royals, along with Bendigo, Echuca and Shepparton.
The newspaper of the day reported “arrangements were a credit to the local organising committee and for many people the sight of their smiling Queen and her handsome husband — actually appearing before their eyes — was their greatest moment”.
Rochester hospital, which had not been operational all that long, was emptied of patients and they were accompanied at the event by nursing staff — the patients sitting in wheelchairs in the shade.
More than 180 girl guides, scouts, brownies and cubs from Rochester and Lockington attended the event, each with a flag acknowledging the Queen and the Duke.
A guard of honour was formed by ex-serviceman of Rochester sub-branch Returned Serviceman’s League, headed by M.A. Dupuy and W. J. Haisman.
A bouquet of the Queen’s favourite flowers, crimson roses, was prepared by G. Batty of Moore Street, Rochester.
It was presented to the queen by the seven-year-old daughter of Shire of Rochester secretary Ron Westcott. Mr Westcott and shire president James Sinclair hosted the visit, with their wives, presenting the royal couple to 1500 flag-waving school children.
Allan Weekes was an Elmore State School student at the time and recalled the extraordinary lengths taken to ferry the school community to Rochester for the event.
“I was in primary school at the time. The school enlisted the help of a truck owner, Jim Bowman, who used to cart of sheep off our farm,” he said.
“They didn’t have enough buses to take all the students, so they pulled up at the local church, loaded pews onto the back of the truck’s trailer (with cages on all sides of the trailer) and we all sat down for the trip to Echuca.
“There were two teachers at the front, a couple in the middle and some at the back.”
Mr Weekes said he remembered the school presenting the Queen with a posy of blue violets.
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