As the Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, stepped onto the tarmac at Alice Springs airport in 1963, she looked around at what she had been told was Australia's "dead heart".
But, as she said in a speech that brought hope to hundreds who had suffered the ravages of a decade-long drought, that is not what she saw.
She saw the "living heart" of the nation.
"After hearing my husband's account of the dramatic scenery, and about the work and hospitality of its people, I was determined that the Northern Territory should be included in this visit," she said in a speech to locals.
"From now on, I shall always look upon it as a living heart beating with confident energy."
The Queen acknowledged that "city dwellers" considered the land "a harsh country with no redeeming features".
"To the romantic, it is the last frontier, the outpost of civilisation, the land of pioneers to be pitied as well as admired," she said.
But she saw Australia's interior as "a land of promise".
"After this visit, no-one will be able to suggest to me that Central Australia is a dead heart," she said.
It was the Royals' first visit together to the Northern Territory and marked the end of an extensive tour of Australia.
Robert Menzies was prime minister, William Sidney was governor-general, and the population of Australia at the end of the year was only 10 million.
Local historian Stuart Traynor said excitement was at fever pitch when the royals arrived at Alice Springs Airport at 4:20pm on March 14.
Their schedule was packed, beginning with an official welcome at the newly built Traeger Park.
"All the children of the schools were lined up on the oval in the big shape of a boomerang," Mr Traynor said.
The Queen and Prince Philip stayed two nights at The Residency on the corner of Parsons and Hartley Streets.
Historian Megg Kelham said two new toilets were installed for the Royal visit, as was air conditioning.
In the 1990s when The Residency was due to undergo restoration works to return it to its original 1920s build, Ms Kelham said the National Trust objected.
"What they wanted to keep was not the air conditioning system, but the toilet that the Queen might have used," Ms Kelham said.
"Now this speaks to the unique character of Alice Springs. It's a very odd thing to want to do."
Ms Kelham said the Queen singled out her visit to Alice Springs in 1963 as a highlight of that year's royal tour of Australia.
"The Queen was a woman of competence, a horse woman, who — if she wasn't the Queen — would have probably been striding around the countryside in jodhpurs, not in skirts and crowns," Ms Kelham said.
"I think she might have recognised that in the women of central Australia."
A rowdy lunch
It was at an official royal luncheon held at the Stuart Arms Hotel where controversy unfolded.
Colonel Lionel Rose, the first director of the Animal Industry Branch in the Northern Territory, told the 100 exuberant guests to "shut up" — language not considered fit for a queen.
Locals Keith and Shirley Castle remember the event clearly.
They were excited to have been invited to have lunch with the Royals thanks to Mr Castle's role as the district governor for Apex at the time.
Mr Castle said the noise of all the guests was deafening.
"A lot of people wouldn't stop talking when people were trying to make the speeches," he said.
"Colonel Rose got up and said, 'Would you all shut up?', which strangely had a far better effect than what the MC had been doing."
Mr Castle said he was convinced he saw the Queen smile.
"I wouldn't say she laughed but she certainly had a big smile on her face, so did the Prince as well," he said.
Mr Traynor said the furore was reported in the now-defunct local paper, the Centralian Advocate.
"A few days later [the paper] reported that and they carried a letter from Colin Ford, the minister at the Flynn church who the Queen had met earlier," he said.
"He got stuck into Colonel Rose, saying it was disgraceful for him to use that terrible language and how it brought shame on the people of Alice Springs."
The Castles said it was a memory they — and the rest of the town — would always cherish.
A football grand final to remember
Victor Ludwig still remembers the dos and don'ts of greeting Her Majesty in 1977 in Darwin.
"We had a few dress rehearsals of how to shake the Queen's hand," he said.
"You don't talk to the Queen until you're spoken to.
"You don't start the conversation — you wait until she speaks and you answer — and if she wants some information, you give it to her."
Then president of St Mary's football club, Mr Ludwig was chosen to host the Queen at a grand final football match against the Waratahs.
Tensions were high.
"When the Queen's car got down to the St Mary's end [of the oval], there was clapping and cheering — and a few boos," Mr Ludwig said.
"Prince Philip looks down to my wife and said, 'Why are they booing?'
"My wife said, 'Well, Your Royal Highness, the Queen, Her Majesty, is wearing the opposition club colours'."
When Little Miss Territorian met the Queen
On that same 1977 tour, when Darwin was still rebuilding after Cyclone Tracy, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a commemorative plaque in honour of the victims of the cyclone.
While she was in town, Queen Elizabeth was given a special gift from Little Miss Territorian, Tamara Johnson.
But it did not exactly go to plan.
Speaking to ABC Radio Darwin, Ms Johnson said "the Lord Mayor at the time was Dr Ella Stack, and she was wearing all of the full lord mayoral robes".
"So I actually thought that the Lord Mayor was the Queen and attempted to give her the flowers instead," she said.
"I was six, nearly seven ... Prince Philip was grinning ear to ear."
'She was really, really lovely'
When Margaret Kemarre 'M K' Turner heard Queen Elizabeth II was coming to Alice Springs in 2000, she eyed a golden opportunity.
"We just told her we don't want any more children to be locked up," the Arrernte elder said, pointing to the Northern Territory's 1997 mandatory sentencing laws.
"We want to have our children beside us and live our life, live our lives as people, as families."
Dr Turner, board director of First Nations not-for-profit Children's Ground, said she was pleased the Queen visited Central Australia "to see who we are, what we do and how we live".
She said she witnessed the complicated relationship some locals had with the British royal family.
"Everybody from the camps wanted to go and see the Queen," Dr Turner said.
"But a lot of our mob pushed other people back. They thought she wasn't the right person to meet.
"I think she was really, really lovely."
