After seeing the carpet rolled out for Queen Elizabeth II, a former Dubbo resident is excited to see the carpet rolled out for her grandson and his new wife.
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Don Lean, 87 worked for council in 1954 when the Queen visited and after her visit purchased the red carpet she walked on.
“Queen Elizabeth, was on a dais in Victoria park, but the Dubbo Council bought quite a quantity of red feltex carpet for here Majesty to walk on, from the gutter to the platform,” Mr Lean said.
Once the royal visit was over the Dubbo Council advertised the red carpet for tender to the public.
“We’d all but completed the furnishing for our house … I applied and got the red feltex.”
Mr Lean said he purchased the carpet for 50 pounds and floored their 13 square metre home.
“We had more carpet than house,” he said.
“Ever since then we’ve stated we were the only house in Dubbo where the Queen had walked on the floor.
“Actually, if you wanted to be correct you’d have to say, ‘the only place in Dubbo where the queen walked on the flooring’.”
Mr Lean said while the novelty of the carpet kept them and their guests entertained, it was not the best choice of carpet.
“It was a terrible thing because red feltex shows everything, I recall.”
Mr Lean said while the Lean’s left Dubbo in 1957, the carpet remained.
Two years ago, their daughter who lived in the Dubbo home until she two years old, took her husband to see their family home.
“The people [owners] were in the garden so she went and told this lady the story about the red feltex. They might have been the second or third owners of the house since we owned it,” Mr Lean said.
“The lady said, ‘oh that explains it. When we were putting new carpet in, we were pulling up the carpet and underneath was all this red feltex’, so it has been there for quite some time.”
Mr Lean said for about 60 years the carpet remained at the Dubbo home.
“I reckon if Harry comes and hears that story, it’d be a good yarn for him to tell his grandmother.”
Mr Lean said he and his wife Margaret had told the story often and still had strong ties to Dubbo despite living in Nambucca Heads.
Read more royal visit stories here.
“It’s the only house where the queen walked on the floor … It might be the only house in Australia for all I know, I don’t think she went house-visiting when she was here in Australia or Dubbo.
“I was telling my wife about the story and thought it would be a good one for Dubbo ... it was all happening in 1954, we got married and the Queen was in Dubbo.”
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