King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Australian tour: What they’ll do, where they’ll stay and where to see…see more

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 activity-packed five-day trip.

Having last visited as the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2018, the King and Queen will visit Australia from October 18-22 in the first tour 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 as Sovereign following his accession to the throne, and the first opportunity for the Australian public to see him in person since his mother’s death.

It will be the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch since 2011, when Queen Elizabeth II last toured Australia, and the 17th official royal visit by Charles.

The 75-year-old King, whose environmental consciousness as prince is well known, will include discussions about climate change and the Australian environment during this tour.

Due to his cancer diagnosis earlier this year, Charles has been forced to curtail the visit, cutting out a tour to New Zealand, and instead ending it by travelling to Samoa for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Charles, who last visited in 2018 with Camilla 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 in Victoria’s Timbertop campus and has since expressed a deep affection for Australia.

His sons and their wives have visited, with Prince William and Kate’s 2014 tour including a trip to Uluru, which drew comparisons to Charles and Princess Diana’s iconic tour of the sacred site in 1983.

Prince Harry and Meghan visited Australia in 2018, announcing while they were here their pregnancy with baby Archie, staying 16 days.

SYDNEY

Charles and Camilla will touch down on October 18 to be greeted in an official welcome by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with the Governor-General Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC.

While in Sydney the King and Queen are expected to stay at Admiralty House, the official Sydney residence of the governor-general located in Kirribilli, with spectacular views over Sydney Harbour.

Royal aides have calibrated the King’s diary while here to ‘protect and prioritise’ his health and recovery, including fewer evening engagements and a ‘rest day’ on his arrival

After landing, the royal couple will be conduct a fleet review of Royal Australian Navy ships on the harbour.

The King will discuss cancer research with 2024 Australians of the Year, Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer, while meeting with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives.

The Queen will meet with children participating in a Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition workshop during a library visit in Sydney.

Space has been publicly left on the itinerary in Sydney for yet-to-be-announced ‘surprises’.

CANBERRA

In Canberra King Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Parliament House, where they will attend a reception to meet Australian political, sporting, arts and community leaders.

The royal couple will then take part in a solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the Australian War Memorial and visit the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial, ‘For Our Country’.

The following day, they will tour the Australian National Botanic Gardens on Black Mountain, in the ACT, to meet with staff and volunteers to discuss the global impacts of climate change