How the King’s trip Down Under compares to the late Queen’s royal tours
Source: ARM
Given permission to pause his cancer treatment, the King and Queen will spend just five days in Australia on a slimmed-down autumn royal tour, taking in official engagements in Sydney and Canberra.
Unlike the late Queen Elizabeth, whose last trip in 2011 also included Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, the 75-year-old monarch will touch down on Friday in Sydney, where he’ll spend a quiet weekend adjusting to a different time zone and weather conditions.
“Charles and Camilla will arrive three days before undertaking any engagements, which will give them time to get used to their surroundings,” a source told London’s Express.
Official engagements begin on Monday with a visit to Parliament House in Canberra and a welcome address by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
There will be a reception with political and community leaders, and a wreath-laying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial before the royals return to Sydney to conduct a fleet review of the Royal Australian Navy.
Brush with royalty
With a recent poll showing renewed popularity for the King (despite the six state premiers opting out of meet and greets), the public will get four chances to wave to the royal couple.
One racing website reports fans may well get an unexpected “11th-hour” glimpse of the royal couple at Randwick on Saturday for the $20 million The Everest meeting, especially as the King Charles III Stakes race is named after him.
It’s not in the official UK royal itinerary nor on the list of activities from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Seven reports not even Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys could convince the King to attend.
After a long trip from the UK, with a short stop in Samoa, the King’s health is top of mind.
Battling an undisclosed form of cancer since February, he will be closely “monitored closely during the visit” with his doctors on standby 24 hours a day, pausing chemotherapy treatment until after the trip.
Steps taken to support the King will also apparently include travelling with a supply of the King’s blood to ensure a match if a transfusion was needed, The Times reported.
The King completed part of his teenage education in Australia. Photo: TND/Getty
The King’s long love of Australia
The King’s first visit to Australia was in 1966 when, at the age of 17, he spent six months (two terms) as an exchange student at Timbertop, the prestigious Geelong Grammar School’s Victorian high country campus.
He went on to visit another 15 times, 14 of which he either accompanied or represented his mother, the first in 1967 at the memorial service for Prime Minister Harold Holt, who disappeared while swimming near his private residence at Portsea.
There were five trips in the 1970s, four in the 1980s and most recently with the Queen in 2018 when he opened the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
The late Queen’s trips were all as a serving monarch, beginning in 1954 at age 27. Her subsequent 16 trips included visits to every state and territory.
The crowds were huge in the early decades, but by the 1980s enthusiasm for the UK royal family began to wane.
That’s when the Queen was grappling with domestic issues, her “Annus horribilis” with her eldest son’s marriage in disarray and a rising sentiment among Commonwealth countries to become republics.
Her last trip, at 85, with Prince Philip, included trips to schools, opening the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, and attending dozens of official engagements.
Rich history
As the new monarch prepares to embark on his first visit as King, Australians have been reminded of his love affair with our country.
From a young schoolboy grappling with a handsaw at school, being kissed on the cheek as one of the world’s most eligible bachelors by bikini-clad model Jane Priest at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach and surfing at Bondi Beach, to the 1983 trip when Princess Diana stole the show.
A flustered Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum once interviewed the King on ABC music show, Countdown, which went down in history as one of the best – and worst – TV moments.
In 2014, the King recorded a video of the disaster for the show’s 40th anniversary, saying “there is an old show business saying which warns never to work with animals or children, but nobody prepared me for Molly Meldrum”.
“Was it really 40 years ago? It seems like yesterday … I wish it were tomorrow, I’d cancel it,” he said.
The King is thrilled to hug New Zealand’s Black Ferns rugby union team member at Buckingham Palace on September 11. Photo: AAP
Rest days, no evening engagements, and maybe hugs?
After the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, the King and Queen land on October 18 and will head straight to their lodgings, most likely at Admiralty House in Kirribilli.
Official duties in Canberra after Parliament House include a visit to the CSIRO, a tour of the National Botanic Gardens and meeting the Australians of the Year, Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer.
Where to see the King:
Monday, October 21
- 12.35pm: For Our Country memorial at the Australian War Memorial western grounds and Sculpture Garden
- 2.10pm: Parliament House forecourt.
Tuesday, October 22
- 4.20pm: Opera House forecourt
- 4.50pm: Man O’War Steps as they embark the Admiral Hudson vessel to conduct a review of five Australian ships.