Prince Harry, 30, made the unannounced visit to the tiny Aboriginal community as part of his secondment with the Australian Army within the elite Indigenous regiment NORFORCE.
“It was pretty exciting, especially for the kids,” community member Barry Trust told the ABC:.
“We weren’t expecting him and he just rocked up with NORFORCE.”
Another local resident, Shaun Cox, reiterated their surprise, telling The West Australian:: “We weren’t expecting it at all. It was just a usual day and then about seven cars just rocked up out of nowhere with a couple of army vehicles. It was amazing.”
In fact Shaun was so excited to snap pictures with the Prince that he immediately drove 65km into nearest town Kununurra to get his photos developed!
“You got to show them off. It’s not every day you get to see a prince,” he said.
Prince Harry greets one of the adorable younger members of the community.
Dressed in his military fatigues, Prince Harry looked far more relaxed and casual than earlier in the week when he visited the War Memorial while sporting dressed in his finest military dress-uniform.
Barry said the Prince was a “real delightful chap, very good to talk to”.
“We’ve invited him back again sometime,” he said.
“He’d love to – he said he’d love to live out this way, to get away from all the media.”
Prince Harry sports his army fatigues as he poses with members of the remote outback community of Wuggubun.
NORFORCE, or, the North West Mobile Force are known as “the eyes and ears of the North” and are the elite unit of the Top End, who formed back when Darwin was being bombed by the Japanese during World War II.
During his secondment Harry will join the NORFORCE troops in patrolling over 1.8 million square kilometres of land in the Northern Territory and WA – the largest area of operations of any military unit in the world, according to the Australian Army.
It wasn’t all business for Harry though in his visit, as he met with the kids of the community, posing for photos.
“He asked how many people live out here and how we run things, and he was playing with all of the kids, picking them up and posing for photos,” local resident Shaun Cox told The West Australian.
“I think the younger ones didn’t really realise who he was, though.”
Prince Harry must have enjoyed escaping the spotlight while he was there!
