Future king touches a nation in mourning
HOW fitting that the making of William, Prince of Hearts, should happen in this time of sorrow and anxiety.
HIS mother wrote the job description all those years ago, and how fitting that the making of William, Prince of Hearts, should happen in this time of sorrow and anxiety.
He stood yesterday, head bowed, among the people of Christchurch, observing a poignant two minutes' silence for the 182 known to have died in the devastating February 22 earthquake.
With Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott looking on at New Zealand's national memorial service, he spoke of how his grandmother, the Queen, had once said that grief was the price of love.
"Here today, we love and we grieve," he told the thousands who had flocked to inner-city Hagley Park in the autumnal sunshine.
More than any other community, Christchurch would understand "the full horror" unfolding in stricken Japan, the prince said. The world had been "in awe" of the courage and understated determination of New Zealanders and their "message about strength through kindness, about fortitude".
He said: "Put simply, you are an inspiration to all people. I count myself enormously privileged to be here to tell you that."
The man who would be King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and, of course, of Australia, will today reach out to cyclone victims in north Queensland.
Tomorrow, he will visit flood-ravaged Ipswich and Grantham, west of Brisbane, where survivors of the "inland tsunami" that destroyed the town on January 10 will share a barbecue with him.
Back in the city, Prince William will be star turn at a $500-a-head cocktail party at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. On Monday, it is on to the towns and farms of rural Victoria that were hit by record floods in late January.
This is a tour Diana, the self-styled Queen of Hearts, would have thoroughly approved of. It will invoke memories of her own love affair with Australia, and how she remade the stodgy image of Britain's royal family before it went so tragically wrong.
William was part of that story, too. He was on his mother's hip, nine months old and blinking in the fierce outback sun, when she first stepped on to Australian soil 28 years ago tomorrow at the side of her then husband, Prince Charles. Diana was an instant sensation. William has inherited her deft touch with people: a gentle hand on the shoulder yesterday for a woman who had lost a loved one in the Christchurch quake; a caress for a little girl, also from a grieving family, who shyly said hello while her brother clutched his teddy bear. "Thank you," their mother told him.
While full-scale royal visits are becoming increasingly infrequent -- it's been five years since the Queen made the journey to Australia -- this is William's second inside of 15 months. Last time, he was still notionally single, and the trip was billed as private, though in reality it was a test run for him to step up his royal duties.
This time, he is travelling at the official invitation of Canberra and Wellington, according to the BBC. How he handles the cheering throngs, and the tears of the grieving, will be seen as important markers to his future in the royal "firm", where he is second in line to the throne, after Prince Charles.
St James's Palace has told the Queensland government, which is handling arrangements for him this weekend, that Prince William wants formalities kept to a minimum. Just as well. His itinerary is a right royal barbecue-stopper.
After flying to Townsville this morning, he will have sausages and burgers with the locals in the cyclone-ravaged town of Cardwell, before going on to Tully and a whistlestop at the Royal Flying Doctor Service depot in Cairns.
Tomorrow, there's morning tea at Ipswich ahead of his appointment with the Grantham survivors. William will also drop into a country music concert atop the range in Toowoomba, 130km west of Brisbane.
He will need to hustle to make the flood fundraiser in Brisbane hosted by Premier Anna Bligh from 6.30pm tomorrow. Members of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra will play at the cocktail party, and Queensland-made wine will be served with canapes.
On Monday, he will be briefed on flood recovery at Kerang, northern Victoria, and tour a farm at Benjeroop. And, yes, there will be a barbecue.
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