Dunnies, dancers and witchetty grubs entertain Charles

ALICE SPRINGS - Bush tucker, topless Aboriginal dancers and a backyard dunny. Prince Charles certainly knew he was in outback Australia today.

He was even offered a night out at a Northern Territory bucks night planned in his honour -- but laughingly declined.

Prince Charles touched down in central Australia to temperatures nudging 38 degrees, to be welcomed by a small crowd and Northern Territory Administrator and entertainer Ted Egan.

Dressed in jacket and tie, the prince was greeted by Aboriginal dancers in cooler attire -- nothing at all on top.

"(It's) very warm," he remarked to one local at the airport.

"It's like getting into an oven. My blood is still too thick."

The painted, traditional Aboriginal dancers, some of whom have previously performed for the queen, made headlines last year when cautioned by police for practising their dance topless in an Alice Springs park.

The prince offered a polite thank you to the dancers, and a quick hello to the small crowd before embarking a on low-key but action-packed tour of the town.

"The dance is wishing him happiness in the future and wherever he goes in Australia we are wishing him well," Ms Anderson said.

Next stop was the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT), and an innovative outback loo, appropriately called the VIP toilet.

The centre designs innovative products, such as bush toilets, ovens and heaters for outback Aboriginal communities where water and electricity are both scarce.

The prince appeared interested in the technology, and played up to the media by stopping inside the small Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) toilet enclosure.

"Prince Charles was interested to know how common these are in remote areas," CAT chief operating officer Steve Fisher said.

"It's basically a hole in the ground with a toilet enclosure on top of it.

"The upward draft of air expels flies from the chamber of the toilet."

Then it was time for afternoon tea -- bush tucker collected from the Australian bush at Alice Springs' Desert Park.

Host ranger Doug Taylor also showed the prince an array of bush fruits and live honey ants, before giving him a lesson in spear throwing.

The prince nibbled at bush banana and bush tomato, but politely declined eating a live witchetty grub.

The prince reportedly suffered a bout of food poisoning during his first visit to Alice Springs in 1977 and spent his 29th birthday in agony.

During his second and last visit, with Princess Diana in 1983, he suffered more bad luck when flooding forced the official party to stay in a $75-a-night motel instead of the more luxurious casino.

The whirlwind visit was to wind up early this evening with an official reception at the Desert Park, before Prince Charles boarded a plane for Melbourne shortly after 7pm (11.30pm NZT).

Meanwhile in Alice Springs, hundreds of locals were tonight celebrating the prince's visit -- and his upcoming marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles -- with an unofficial bachelor party.

The Bojangles pub had "borrowed" a mayoral red carpet from the local town council, and had brought in 10 to 12 cases of grog for the party.

Publican Chris Vaughan promised a "wholesome fun day with a bit of cheeky Australian humour".

Mr Egan said he had invited the prince to the bucks night, and he had been "tickled pink" by the offer.

"He had a good laugh, he read it (the invitation) comprehensively," Mr Egan said.

"He said 'what a pity we couldn't have scheduled this', so I'm going along as a representative tonight and I'll be at the bucks party."

Prince Charles' visit to Victoria tomorrow includes a dinner at his old school, Geelong Grammar, where he will launch its 150th anniversary celebrations.

As a 17-year-old, Prince Charles spent two terms as an exchange student at the school's Timbertop campus, near Mansfield in northern Victoria, in 1966. He last visited in 1974.

- AAP