In the station country of West Australia's Murchison, it's fair to say encounters with royalty are few and far between.
But for four days in March 1979, Les Price and his parents Jim and Gwen Price hosted the future King at their property on Coodardy Station, 32 kilometres west of Cue.
Having requested a station stay as part of his itinerary, King Charles (then, the Prince of Wales) and his entourage descended on the sheep station, seven and a half hours north of Perth.
At the time King Charles was representing Her Majesty the Queen, touring the state of WA as part of its 150th anniversary.
Now more than 40 years later, it's an experience never lost on Les Price.
Camp fit for a king
Mr Price said it was "most interesting" to host a member of the monarchy.
"We were afforded the opportunity for him to come to the station," he said.
"The army came up and they built a bivouac-style campsite for him out in the bush, which was carefully selected."
King Charles spent two nights camping and the other nights in a homestead, Mr Price said.
"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 he said, 'I'd never seen before,'" Mr Price said.
Mr Price reminisced on how the King wanted to disconnect from his royal life and indulge in the bush.
"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.
"For him to get out to Coodardy Station it gave him the freedom to unwind and relax."
Mr Price talked about the liberty station life offered and was grateful the King was open to experiencing that.
"One of the interesting things about Prince Charles was he wanted the freedom to be able to express himself and be able to get away from the rat race," he said.
All-in station experience
Mr Price remembers the King's demeanour.
"My impressions of him were that he was always aware of his role and always aware of what was going to be," Mr Price said.
The King even traded a specialty-built army toilet for 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.
Mr Price said the King wanted to be put through his paces and readily accepted plenty of work around the station.
"He did … some sort of sheep mustering on horseback, he did some mill runs, he was an accomplished pilot as well too, and he flew the planes," he said.
"It was one of those things you wouldn't do these days."
Station memories to fuel a lifelong bond
With the press allowed in for just one hour of the King's four-day stay, the Prices were left with largely unfettered access to him.
"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," Mr Price said.
The royal visit created lasting memories for the Price family who kept in touch with the King.
"We had a number of connections with Prince Charles since that time," Mr Price said.
"We attended his 67th birthday at the Cottesloe Civic Centre, he remembered who we were and his experiences on the station."
The Price family also shared a number of letters with Buckingham Palace, most significantly to notify the King of Jim Price's passing in January 2001.
In 2015, Mr Price wrote to the Premier of WA's office to arrange the delivery of a photo album containing personal photos that were taken during the King's Coodardy stay.
Mr Price said the King had expressed interest in reflecting on those images.
"It was just a lasting memory for him," he said.
