Camilla puts Charles in his place on Australia tour

The Prince of Wales was put in his place by the Duchess of Cornwall when she jokingly brandished a knife at him.

With a smile on her face Camilla held up the eight-inch blade and told Charles "behave yourself".

The encounter came as the royal couple looked at a selection of hand forged kitchen knives by cutler Barry Gardner, 61, based at the Australian Seppeltsfield Winery near Tanunda.

Charles had a look of mock horror on his face as he stared at the Damascus steel blade, but his entourage and the vineyard's senior staff erupted with laughter.

The prince and the duchess were taken on a tour of the property and Camilla admitted she loves a tipple.

"I am a red wine drinker," she said, " My father was in the wine trade."

They were then escorted to Seppeltsfield's barrel room, where they sampled tawny port put under oak in the years of their birth, 1947 for Camilla and 1948 for Charles.

The couple joked over who had the better tasting birth-year, with the prince describing his as "strong and bold" and the duchess' as "refined and elegant".

The visit to the winery near Adelaide came on the first day of their trip to Australia, which followed a tour of New Zealand.

The prince and duchess began their Australian tour by visiting the small town of Tanunda where Charles was reminded of the night he took the hand of a Balmoral maid and led her onto the dance floor during a Scottish ball.

His lucky dance partner was Clare Morrow, 48, who was waiting among hundreds of well-wishers hoping to meet the fleet footed prince.

She held a sign which read "Charles! Thanks for the dance! Ghillies Ball" the annual event hosted by the Queen for her Balmoral neighbours, estate staff and local community.

Ms Morrow stood out from the hundreds of Tanunda school children and local residents waiting to catch a glimpse of the royal couple and when the duchess spotted her she beckoned the prince over.

In 1993 she was a maid in the royal household and during a summer working at Balmoral she had the job of cleaning Charles' suite which - tradition dictates - earns the worker a dance with the prince.

The former royal maid who has returned to live in her homeland of Australia said: "Camilla thought it was such a funny thing, Prince Charles said 'that was such a long time ago, I don't remember' - I hope he doesn't think I was stalking him."

Asked to describe Charles' dancing the 48-year-old who lives in Adelaide replied: "I don't know I was so nervous at the time - I was just a big wobbly bowl of jelly.

"He was always so polite and lovely, no one could say a bad word about him."