King Charles III was among past visiting guests in Cockatoo, something not every town can claim.
A young Charles, along with then-wife Princess Diana, visited a fire-ravaged Cockatoo in 1983.
The royal visit was just weeks after the devastating Ash Wednesday fires swept through Cockatoo, bringing hope to locals as they tried to rebuild their lives.
Former resident Eric Bumpstead won the job of showing the royal couple around and introducing them to members of local brigades.
He remembers them as easygoing and charming.
Eric said he shook hands and talked with Charles and Diana, but it all happened so quickly that it was a bit of a blur.
“I don’t remember what was said now, but they were concerned and interested in what had happened,” Eric said in 2009.
Eric added the twowere weary that the visit might have appeared to be a publicity stunt.
Eric and wife Joyce were also there when the then-Prince Charles planted a tree in the grounds of the Cockatoo Kindergarten – a symbol of the new growth for the town.
The tree and plaque are still at the McBride Street site which is now the Ash Wednesday Bushfire Education Centre.
Eric said the visit was intended to lift the spirits of the relatives of those who died fighting the fires.
The relatives of those who perished in the fires were among a crowd of about 6000 people who witnessed the royal couple step from a limousine in McBride Street on Friday 25 March.
The event was recorded in an eight-page wrap around on the following week’s edition of the Pakenham Gazette.
In the Gazette’s 123-year history, it has been the only edition to sell out in a single day.
