'I'm not using that': King Charles' strange request during Aussie sheep farm stay

When King Charles touches down on Australian soil later this week, it will mark his first trip Down Under as a monarch.

But the royal tour will mark his 17th trip to Australia, a fact that underpins the Prince of Wales' deep love of Australia and Australians.

In fact, his four-day stop over at an isolated Western Australian sheep station left a lasting impression on the future monarch.

Charles, then 30, and Britain's most eligible bachelor, arrived in Australia in March 1979 as part of a royal tour to mark the 150th anniversary of the state of Western Australia.

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Like most of his visits, his 1979 tour saw him representing his mother, the Late Queen Elizabeth II.

Prince Charles' visit began in Perth, where he was famously snapped receiving a kiss from Australian model Jane Priest while emerging from the waves at Cottesloe beach.

After one week touring WA's south west, he ventured north for a week. It was during that time he converged on a sheep station owned by the Price family.

A photo taken of the future monarch enjoying a cuppa was discovered last year in the lead up to King Charles' coronation.

Getty Images senior photo editor – archive, Justyna Zarnowska, said the previously forgotten photo was taken "during the 1979 outback station stay he requested as part of his itinerary."

A local politician, Jim Price, his wife Gwen and son Les hosted Prince Charles at Coodardy Station near Murchison.

In 2022, the ABC interviewed Les Price about the royal visit, which saw Charles and his entourage descend on the sheep station, located in the Cue Shire, 620 km north-east of Perth.

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"We were afforded the opportunity for him to come to the station," Price told the ABC.

"The army came up and they built a bivouac-style campsite for him out in the bush, which was carefully selected. There was even a specialty-built army toilet, but Charles decided instead to use a tree.

"When he saw it, he sort of rubbed his hand on his chin and said, 'I'm not going to use this, I want to do what everybody else does,'" he said.

Price said Charles spent two nights camping and the other nights inside the homestead.

"One of the things he was really keen about was just spending time sleeping on the lawn, would you believe, and just looking at the millions of stars," Price said.

During the day, he was put to work.

"[He did some] sheep mustering on horseback, he did some mill runs, he was an accomplished pilot as well too, and he flew the planes," he told the ABC.

"It was one of those things you wouldn't do these days."

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Price said Charles seemed keen to take a break from royal life.

"You could see he was a young person who was bombarded by paparazzi or by the system or by what's going to happen to him in the future," he said.

"My impressions of him were that he was always aware of his role and always aware of what was going to be.

"For him to get out to Coodardy Station it gave him the freedom to unwind and relax."

The media was allowed to visit for just one hour of the four-day stay.

The rest of the time, Charles was happy to engage with the Price family.

"We spent quite a bit of time at a personal level talking to him about things you would usually not talk about, [such as] his family history," Price said.

After Charles' departure, they kept in touch.

"We had a number of connections with Prince Charles since that time," Price said.

The Price family exchanged letters with Buckingham Palace, including when Jim Price died in 2001.

When Charles returned to Cottesloe in 2015 as part of a royal tour with Queen Camilla, a reception was held to mark his birthday.

Despite four decades having passed by, the Price family was invited.

"We attended his 67th birthday at the Cottesloe Civic Centre. He remembered who we were and his experiences on the station."

That same year, Price wrote to the WA Premier's office to arrange delivery of a photo album containing personal photos taken during the King's 1979 stay after he expressed interest in seeing the images.

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