The Duchess of Cornwall showed exactly how she keeps her husband Prince Charles in line today during a trip to the Barossa.
The royal couple were touring South Australia’s Seppeltsfield Estate when they met with knife maker Barry Gardner.
Camilla caused widespread hilarity when she jokingly brandished one of the hand-forged knives on display at her husband.
With a smile on her face Camilla held up the eight-inch blade and told Charles “behave yourself”. Charles was left with a look of mock horror on his face as he stared at the Damascus steel blade, but his entourage and the vineyard’s senior staff erupted with laughter.
The couple touched down in Adelaide earlier this afternoon.
An impressive official welcome line-up included Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife Lady Cosgrove, the Governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le, and the Premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill.
Even though the couple only spent an afternoon in South Australia they had a packed schedule of five events spanning the Barossa Valley and Adelaide. The Duchess looked elegant in a wearing a cream and black ensemble made by one of her favourite English designers Anna Valentine.
This trip to the Barossa, which started in the historic rural town of Tanunda, was all about meeting the community and showcasing the region’s riches. The Barossa is home to around 22,500 people including around 750 wine growing families and Tanunda was the only one of today’s events open to general public.
Traditionally, South Australians are ardent monarchists and they certainly showed that enthusiasm here today with 3000 lining the streets, including 1200 local schoolchildren, to meet the royal couple.
Tanunda welcomed the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in vintage style, presenting them with a bottle of premium Hill of Grace red wine. “I’m looking forward to tasting it some time soon,” the Prince told Tanunda mayor Bob Sloane.
The Royal couple had arrived fashionably late, almost 20 minutes behind schedule on the first touchdown of their whirlwind five-day Australian visit but they still personally greeted as many of the locals as they could. “I don’t believe it,” Prince Charles laughed when confronted by one royal fan with a photograph of himself and sister Princess Anne as children.
The most excited crowd member however had to be former Buckingham Palace maid who was hoping to be reunited with Prince Charles more than 20 years after she danced with him in Scotland. Clare Morrow had travelled to Tanunda in the Barossa Valley to meet Charles and Camilla. Clare grabbed the Royals’ attention with a homemade sign thanking Charles for a dance at the Ghillies Ball in Scotland in 1993.
“I was just hoping that he didn’t think I was a crazy stalker,” she said afterwards. Of course, Prince Charles didn’t. But he was a bit hazy on the dance itself. “He said ‘that’s so funny, that was such a long time ago. I don’t remember’,” Ms Morrow said.
The former maid worked as a Buckingham from 1992 to 1994 and travelled with the Royals to Balmoral Castle. She looked after Prince Charles’ suite and it was his habit to always ask his maid for a dance.
“I was terrible because I was so nervous. I was shaking from head to toe and he was so sweet because he knew,” Ms Morrow said. “He was always so polite and lovely and no-one can say a bad word about him.”
The Prince and Duchess were welcomed to country by Quenten Agius who presented them with a sprig of peppermint gum. “That will come in handy to keep the flies off me,” the Prince joked.
After examining hand-crafted wooden products made by the local mental health support group, the Men’s Shed, the Duchess stopped to admire a two metre sculpture of a horse made from rusted found objects from the Barossa. Made by local artist Joel Zimmerman, 20, it took 180 hours to complete.
Her Royal Highness also unveiled a plaque renaming the historic Country Women’s Association as the Tanunda CWA Hall before farewelling the crowds. “It was so nice, very good,” the Prince told Mr Sloane.
The couple left for Seppeltsfield Estate at 2.20 pm, cutting short their time in Tanunda but leaving the town thrillled to have been chosen as the start of the Royal visit, the 15th to Australia by the Prince and the second by the Duchess.
The couple then drove in a motorcade through the stunning vineyards to Seppeltsfield Winery established in the Barossa Valley by Joseph and Johanna Seppelt in 1851, just 15 years after the European settlement of South Australia.
This majestic estate is steeped in rich Barossan heritage and helped shape the history of the Australian wine industry. Today more than 420 acres surround the Seppeltsfield estate – now a combination of ancient vineyards, historically significant winemaking buildings, lush gardens and priceless architecture.
Seppeltsfield is most famed for the Centennial Collection – an irreplaceable and unbroken lineage of Tawny of every vintage from 1878 to current year. The estate remains the only winery in the world to release a 100 year old, single vintage wine each year. More recently, the recommissioning of an 1888-built gravity-fed cellar has revitalised the estate’s prowess with still wines.
This visit is particularly appropriate for the Duchess who is President of the United Kingdom Vineyards Association and first stop was the vineyard’s working cooperage, where Master Cooper Andrew Young, 55, and his apprentice David Pawson, 42, put on an impressive display with flames licking up the inside of a barrel. It’s called charring and prepares the barrel for whisky storage.
“These port soaked barrels are 80 years of age. The charring caramelises the port residue resulting in that wonderful plum pudding flavour. This process gives 65 per cent of the flavour and colour to the whisky,” a very proud Andrew Young told The Weekly afterwards. Andrew who is one of a dying breed of master coopers recruited David when the two met volunteering for the local Country Fire Service and David has been learning the art of cooperage for four years and loves working at Seppeltsfield. The barrels are highly prized especially to Bill Lark in Tasmania whose single malt whisky is now recognised as one of the best in the world. “The whisky matures in these barrels for 6-7 years,” Bill tells The Weekly over the phone from the Apple Isle. “They’re a crucial part of the process.”
David is a keen royalist and was really excited to meet the royal couple today. Andrew said he hopes the special barrel they have made as a gift for Prince Charles will have pride of place in the royal couple’s home. “It will be such a thrill for us if in five years’ time the Prince is talking to his family about the colonials who made this for him,” he said.
After the pyrotechnics the couple looked at a display by Jam Factory Artisans including a shoe maker, a milliner and knife maker Barry Gardner.
The Prince and the Duchess were taken on a tour of the property and Camilla admitted she loves a tipple. “I am a red wine drinker,” she said, “My father was in the wine trade.” They were then escorted to Seppeltsfield’s barrel room, where they sampled tawny port put under oak in the years of their birth, 1947 for Camilla and 1948 for Charles.
The couple bantered over who had the better tasting birth-year, with the prince describing his as “strong and bold” and the duchess’ as “refined and elegant”.
Prince Charles was also shown the birth year barrels of his sons Princes William and Harry, and grandchildren Prince George and Princess Charlotte. The Prince and The Duchess concluded their visit to Seppeltsfield Winery and Village Estate by attending an exhibition and showcase of local food and wine attended by local chefs including The Weekly’s country cook Maggie Beer.
After sampling vintage Barossa wine the couple headed back to the city for separate and very different events. The Duchess of Cornwall met Australian of the Year the British born Rosie Batty at a compelling roundtable discussion on domestic violence at Government House hosted by the Governor’s wife Mrs Lan Le. Whilst the subject of domestic violence is a relatively new area for The Duchess, Her Royal Highness has worked for several years to raise awareness about rape and sexual abuse (both in the UK and internationally).
On average, at least one woman in Australia is killed each week by a current or former intimate partner and the Duchess of Cornwall used the meeting to urge more victims to speak out.
Other attendees included SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, SA Equal Opportunity Commissioner Anne Gale, Yarrow Place Rape and Sexual Assault Service manager Katrina Dee and sisters Atena and Anita Abrahimzadeh, who lost their mother Zahra to family violence and have since established Zahra Foundatioin Australia in her honour to help women escape abusive relationships.
The Duchess sat next to family violence survivor Rosie Batty and praised those who were willing to share their experiences of family violence in a bid to shed light on the social scourge.
“It is a difficult thing to report,” she said. “People sometimes think they’re not going to be believed. A lot of people feel shame so they sit on it for years. It’s about getting people to feel that it’s alright to go to the police.”
The Duchess told Ms Batty she was “incredibly brave” after she heard how Rosie’s son Luke was killed by his father last year.
“People think it (domestic violence) is something that shouldn’t be talked about, that should be kept under the carpet,” Camilla said. “It takes people like you to speak out about it.
“There’s a lot of brave women around here and a lot of people who want to help them.”
Ms Batty, who conceded she was a little nervous, said that by the end of her term as Australian of the Year she will have spoken at about 300 events, to about 70,000 people.
Sipping from a gold-rimmed teacup, Camilla listened carefully as others around the table explained how their organisations are working to address domestic violence. She also outlined an initiative operating in some British counties where victims of domestic violence are supported to set up safe rooms in their homes.
“When the person in question is feeling under threat … they can lock themselves in, with a telephone and they can get straight through to the police to get some help,” the Duchess explained. “I think that’s been helping a lot of people.” The Duchess also stressed the importance of teaching children at an early stage about respectful relationships.
After the meeting The Duchess was escorted to the library to view a selection of beautiful opals from an exhibition on display at the South Australian Museum including three opals on loan from the Queen from The Royal Collection – a Faberge carved stoat commissioned by Edward VII, Queen Charlotte’s Opal ring, and a set of Queen Victoria’s earrings.
Meanwhile The Prince of Wales visited the Bowden precinct to launch the construction of The Prince’s Australian Terrace. Bowden is the South Australian State Government’s first higher density urban infill project that will serve as a model for urban renewal and inner city living for South Australia and beyond.
The sustainable design principles at the heart of Bowden’s ethos tie in very well with the Prince’s building philosophy spearheaded by his Australian born building advisor, the dapper Dominic Richards. The Prince’s Terrace will host 12 townhouses and apartments, designed in consultation with the Prince’s Foundation and boasting local materials, recycled water and energy-efficient lighting. Leaving nothing to chance, the prince took the opportunity to interrogate developers about the fine details.
“Have these trees been planted yet?” he asked, pointing to an artist’s impression of the development. “Do they grow quite well?”
Charles appeared relaxed and cheerful, sharing jokes with a number of dignitaries and warmly greeting volunteers from community groups. Told that a portion of the homes at Bowden would be reserved for low to middle-income earners, the prince turned to Mr Weatherill and nodded approvingly.
The event was closed to the public but the prince was nevertheless greeted by a crowd of about 30 devotees as his motorcade arrived at the site. And he couldn’t help walking over to say hello to his well-wishers and shake their hands before he left – although he politely declined a request for a selfie from a teenage girl.
The prince will fly to Canberra on Tuesday night after earlier visiting the Barossa Valley. His final goodbye was reserved for two young girls who handed the prince a bunch of flowers – and then with a wave, he set off to join wife Camilla.
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