A bar owner who was jailed for sneaking through the West Australian border at the height of the Covid pandemic is related to King Charles III’s polo instructor.
Border-breacher Hayden Burbank, 50, is the nephew of Sinclair Hill, considered one of Australia’s best-ever polo players and was inducted into the Australian Polo Hall of Fame in 2013.
Mr Hill started out coaching King Charles at Windsor Castle in what would become his much beloved sport and the pair quickly became friends.
King Charles visited Mr Hill at his Moree, northern NSW, property in 1981 and invited him and his wife Wendy Hill to his wedding to Princess Diana’s later that year.
Diana’s former Earl’s Court flatmate, Anne Boulton, whom she lived with when she became engaged to then-Prince Charles, went on to marry Mr Hill’s son Noel.
Noel and Anne would later own Tooloombilla Station in outback Queensland where Prince Harry worked for three months as a jackaroo during his gap year in Australia in 2003.
Hayden Burbank (right), 50, owns trendy Windsor, Melbourne restaurant and bar Morris Jones
Mr Burbank’s uncle Sinclair Hill taught King Charles to play polo (pictured: Charles rests after playing Polo for ‘Les Daibles Bleus’ on June 1, 1983 at Guards Polo Club, Smiths Lawn in Windsor, Berkshire)
Princess Diana’s (right) former flat-mate Anne Bolton (centre) went on to marry Mr Hill’s son Noel
Mr Burbank, whose mother is the sister of Wendy Hill, owns trendy restaurant and bar Morris Jones in Windsor, Melbourne.
In addition to continuing his family’s love of polo, Mr Burbank is also a diehard AFL fan and it was this passion that landed him in hot water in September 2021.
He and financial planner mate Mark Babbage, 40, forged bogus documents and illegally snuck into WA, which at that point was under a strict hard border due to Covid.
The Melbourne Demons fans crossed the border via the Northern Territory, which had an open border with WA at the time, to watch their team play the Western Bulldogs in the Grand Final.
Mr Burbank shared a video of the pair on social media joyously singing the club’s song after and downing beers in the club’s change room as the players celebrated after their 140-66 win at Optus Stadium.
Club officials and the player’s wives and girlfriends who were unable to travel to Perth were furious Mr Burbank and Mr Babbage were able to breach both the team’s and WA’s supposed Covid bubble.
They were each charged with three counts of providing false information to border authorities and spent three months in a WA jail.
Burbank recently opened up about his jail stint to AFL personality Sam Newman in his ‘You Cannot be Serious’ podcast.
‘There were some sketchy moments. You were walking on eggshells and it was basically a game of Survivor and you had to form allegiances,’ he told Newman.
‘It was the greatest game of Survivor of all-time, that’s how I’d describe it.’
Mr Burbank (lef) celebrating the Melbourne Demons 2021 AFL Grand Final win the change rooms
But Burbank appears to see the a lighter side to his incarceration, sending out invites to a upcoming party that reference his ‘you know what little interstate adventure’.
The ’10 plus 1′ birthday bash for his bar Morris Jones bar is set for September 29 with invites already going out to guests.
‘Hayden Burbank would like to invite you to join us to celebrate a very special milestone of 10 Years at Morris Jones … that we unfortunately couldn’t celebrate last year due to the lockdown,’ the invitation reads.
‘So, this year we’re going all out and celebrating 10+1 years.
‘It will also be our first big shindig at Morris Jones since you know what little interstate adventure, so it promises to be a big one.’
His bar Morris Jones (pictured) is having a birthday bash in September for 10 years plus one after last years was prevented due to lockdowns
But it seems even more legal troubles might put a dampener on the affair.
Victoria Police on Wednesday arrested Mr Burbank after officers raided the Chapel St venue as well as his luxury $4 million Toorak mansion.
‘Police arrested a 50-year-old Toorak man and seized prescription medication. The man was released pending further inquiries,’ a Victoria Police statement said.
It is understood no charges have been laid as of Sunday.
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