King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Australian tour: What they’ll do, where they’ll stay and where to see them
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will travel to Sydney and Canberra next month for an active five-day trip.
The last time I visited the country as the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall was in 2018. The King and Queen will visit Australia from October 18 to 22, the first trip by a British royal since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
It is expected to be a particularly emotional visit for His Majesty. It will be his first visit as Sovereign since his accession to the throne, and the first chance for the Australian public to see him in person since the death of his mother.
It is the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch since 2011, when Queen Elizabeth II last toured Australia, and Charles’ 17th official royal visit.
The 75-year-old king, whose environmental awareness is well-known as a prince, will discuss climate change and the Australian environment during this tour.
Charles was forced to cut short his visit due to a cancer diagnosis earlier this year, cancelling a tour of New Zealand and instead travelling to Samoa for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
As Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, the couple visited Australia in 2018 (above), but their tour as King and Queen next month is the most anticipated royal visit in decades
Official portrait of King Charles and Queen Camilla for the upcoming tour of Australia, showing him wearing the Sovereign’s Badge of the Order of Australia and the Queen wearing the Wattle Brooch presented to Queen Elizabeth on her first visit as monarch in 1954.
Charles, who last visited with Camilla in 2018 to open the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, first came to Australia in 1966 as a 17-year-old.
He spent two terms at Geelong Grammar School on the Timbertop campus in Victoria and has since expressed a deep affection for Australia.
His sons and their wives have also visited the site. Prince William and Kate visited Uluru in 2014, which was similar to Charles and Princess Diana’s iconic tour of the sacred site in 1983.
Prince Harry and Meghan visited Australia in 2018 and announced they were pregnant with baby Archie. They stayed for 16 days.
SYDNEY
Charles and Camilla land on 18 October and are officially welcomed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Governor General Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC.
During their stay in Sydney, the King and Queen are expected to stay at Admiralty House, the Governor-General’s official residence in Sydney, located in Kirribilli, which offers spectacular views over Sydney Harbour.
Royal aides have adjusted the King’s diary during his stay here to ‘protect and prioritise’ his health and recovery, including fewer evening activities and a ‘rest day’ on his arrival
After landing, the royal couple will conduct a fleet inspection of the Royal Australian Navy ships in port.
Charles and Camilla, who opened the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018, will return in October, this time as queen and king, in a visit expected to draw large crowds
They can also enjoy a communal barbecue, attended by indigenous Australians and other representatives of the country’s cultural diversity.
The King will discuss cancer research with 2024 Australians of the Year, Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer, and will also meet with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives.
The Queen will meet children taking part in a workshop for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition during a library visit in Sydney.
There is public space reserved in Sydney for as yet unannounced ‘surprises’.
CANBERRA
King Charles and Queen Camilla visit Parliament House in Canberra, where they attend a reception and meet Australian political, sporting, arts and community leaders.
The royal couple will then take part in a ceremonial wreath-laying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial and visit the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial ‘For Our Country’.
The next day they visit the Australian National Botanic Gardens on Black Mountain, in the Australian Capital Territory, to talk to staff and volunteers about the global impacts of climate change.
The official announcement of the tour on the royal family’s Instagram account states that after their tour of Australia, the King and Queen will visit Samoa for the CHOGM meeting
They will also visit the CSIRO headquarters, which is next door to the house, where the monarch will speak to scientists who are researching the impact of bushfires and the resilience of the environment to recover from devastation.
Queen Camilla will meet with family and domestic violence campaigners and representatives from the anti-poverty charity GIVIT, which distributes donations to several organisations.
During her last visit to Australia in 2011, her 16th, Queen Elizabeth stayed for 10 days, visiting Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.