King Charles and Queen Camilla landed in Sydney on 18 October and were met by Governor-General Samantha Mostyn, New South Wales Governor Margaret Beazley, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state Premier Chris Minns. The Sydney Opera House lit up that night with photos of the couple from their earlier visits.
The trip ran until 23 October. No reigning monarch had been to Australia in more than a decade, and no reigning king had ever made the journey. For Charles it was the 17th visit. It also came after his cancer diagnosis in February 2024, which had cast doubt on whether the tour would happen at all. It went ahead with several changes, and it was his first visit to a Commonwealth realm since he became King on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2022.
He arrived under a new Australian flag, approved on 30 August and flown for the first time on this tour.
Sydney and Canberra
The couple rested on 19 October. The next morning they attended a service at St Thomas’ Anglican Church, where Sydney’s archbishop, Kanishka Raffel, received them. Charles then went to New South Wales Parliament for its 200th anniversary and gave the Legislative Council a timer for debates.
On 21 October they flew to Canberra. A smoking ceremony welcomed them at Defence Establishment Fairbairn, and they laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial and the For Our Country Memorial. At Parliament House the Australian Federation Guard gave a Royal Salute and the King inspected the guard before the reception in the Great Hall. He spoke there, as did Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. None of the six state premiers came.
Then Senator Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal Australian, interrupted. She accused Charles of genocide and shouted “you are not my king” and “this is not your land” before she was escorted out.
Albanese and Dutton both condemned her remarks, and Dutton called on her to resign. Indigenous leaders responded in different ways. Aunty Violet Sheridan, a Ngunnawal Elder at the reception, called the comments “disrespectful”. The Senate later censured Thorpe for “disrespectful and disruptive” conduct and barred her from sitting on any delegation. BBC correspondent Sean Coughlan wrote that the heckling left the King “completely unruffled”, since he saw free speech as the “cornerstone of democracy”.
At Government House the King met Albanese and Dutton and unveiled the new Great Seal of Australia. He also visited the National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory. Camilla joined a discussion on domestic violence, and the two ended the day at the Australian National Botanical Gardens.
Back in Sydney
The fifth day began at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, where Charles met Elders and community leaders and took part in his second smoking ceremony of the trip. He went on to Melanoma Institute Australia to meet skin cancer patients and survivors. Camilla, patron of UKHarvest, helped prepare lunch at Refettorio OzHarvest.
In Parramatta the pair cooked and handed out sausages at a community barbecue. Outside the Opera House they greeted crowds and watched schoolchildren dance. The King then reviewed the Royal Australian Navy fleet in Sydney Harbour, with a flypast by the Australian Defence Force overhead.
Daisy Dumas wrote in The Guardian that the tour showed a modern, approachable monarchy. The King picked hugs over handshakes, the couple happily posed for selfies with schoolchildren, and politicians in the New South Wales Parliament filmed him, something royal attendants would once have discouraged.
On the tarmac an official party saw them off, among them Mostyn and her husband Simeon Beckett. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stood in for Albanese, and deputy premier Prue Car for Minns. A Royal Australian Air Force plane took the couple to Samoa, where Charles attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, his first as Head of the Commonwealth. The Australian Government marked the visit with a A$10,000 contribution to Greening Australia.
A Roy Morgan poll taken on 22 and 23 October found 57 per cent of respondents wanted Australia to stay a monarchy and 43 per cent wanted a republic.
