The outback boy who will see his Maori father wed a Windsor

Deep in the Western Australian outback, this is the isolated outpost 11-year-old Ari Lewis calls home.

A dusty, one-bar farming town where the most exciting thing is the annual sheep-shearing competition, Ongerup is where he rides his bike, climbs trees and plays Aussie Rules football.

But you won't find him there at the moment. He is in London to watch his dad marry... at Kensington Palace.

Ari's father is Gary Lewis, the former sheep shearer, fanatical surfer and Maori builder who this weekend is to marry Lady Davina Windsor, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and 20th in line to the throne.

There will be a small, private ceremony at the palace, birthplace of Lady Davina's greatgreatgreat-grandmother, Queen Victoria. But in Ongerup's book, the couple have picked the wrong venue. One regular at the town's only hotel said bluntly: "Bloody oath mate. Bring her out here and we'll show her a good time."

Ari is Mr Lewis's son from a former relationship and lives with his mother, Roberta - a wool sorter in a shearing shed - and stepfather Matthew Faulkner, a farmhand.

Now Ari has become the toast of the red-dirt town, where the favourite joke at the moment is how he should claim the throne and invite Lady Davina to pop over for a beer. Over at the truck stop - with its lone fuel pump, limited selection of rental videos and empty pie-warmer - one local said: "It's pretty amazing but Ari seems to be taking it all in his stride. He told me he was going to the wedding and that was it. It would be fun to have a bit of royalty in town.''

Ari's modest home is a world away from the splendours of Kensington Palace. His stepbrothers Bruno, four, and two-year-old Lars have left their toys in the front yard. Nothing much ever gets stolen in Ongerup.

The wooden-framed house, its glass front door cracked and held together with brown parcel tape, looks out over the unlit main street to a wheat truck stop and grain collection yard. It nestles between an empty farm supplies shop and a boarded-up factory unit and storage shed.

Big trucks loaded with sheep or tonnes of wheat rolling past the front door are just about the only noise to shatter the silence or disturb the cockatoos in the gum trees. The occasional kangaroo hops out of the bush, mesmerised by vehicle headlights.

Leaning on the pine log and wire fence, can of beer in hand, Mr Faulkner said his stepson had appeared laid-back at the prospect of meeting royalty. "'Oh yeah, I'm going to a wedding', is about all he says when people ask him about it," he said, adding: "Underneath he's pretty excited though.

"Funny ain't it? You look out of our yard and all you see is bush. Wonder what he'll be looking at in London?" He said Ari, who moved to Ongerup with his mother five years ago, met his father's royal bride-to-be last year when the couple took him to Disneyland Paris.

President of the local Gnowangerup Shire Council, Jan Savage, whose tyre shop is two doors away from Ari's home, said: "I think it's great - something he'll always remember. He's a lovely, bright kid. A nice Ongerup kid. He's always out riding his bike in the bush and playing footie. I hope he enjoys London."