Royal visit Australia as it happened: King Charles and Queen Camilla greet crowds at Sydney Opera House

It was a busy day for King Charles and Queen Camilla on their final day of royal duties before they jet out of Sydney tomorrow.

That’s it for our live coverage – thanks for keeping us company as we follow Charles and Camilla across the city.

In case you missed it, here’s what the King and Queen got up to in Sydney today:

• The King and Queen started the morning at separate engagements – the King visited the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence and a Homes NSW project in Glebe.
• Queen Camilla visited Refettorio OzHarvest, where she was gifted a silver teaspoon and met Caesar the parrot, a local character in Surry Hills.
• Queen Camilla met with author and father of the Australian Republican Movement Thomas Keneally at Green Square Library, who described her as “lovely”.
• The King and Queen had a turn cooking a sausage sizzle at a community barbecue in Parramatta, where the King paid tribute to the high quality of Australian cuisine.
• The King met Australians of the Year professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer at the Melanoma Institute.
• Finally, their majesties delighted an estimated 10,000 royal fans at the Sydney Opera House, before embarking on a navy fleet review in the harbour.
• The pair will fly out of Sydney at about 11am tomorrow, travelling to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Australian of the Year Professor Richard Scolyer found King Charles warm and engaging during an afternoon visit to Melanoma Institute Australia at Wollstonecraft.

“He was very generous with his time,” said Scolyer, who shared the award with Professor Georgina Long, his fellow Co-Medical Director of the Institute.

“I was blown away by what an engaging guy he was and how interested he was in what we’re doing.“

The King listened to short talks from dermatologist Associate Professor Linda Martin on the early detection of melanoma and from Scolyer on diagnosing what has been described as Australia’s national cancer before Long introduced him to a patient who had been successfully treated with immunotherapy for Stage IV melanoma.

Richard Scolyer and King Charles during their meeting on TuesdayCredit: AP

“Georgina and I then joined forces to talk about the importance of prevention because prevention is better than curing melanoma,” Scolyer said.

At the end of the visit, they presented the King with an Akubra hat and wristbands that turn purple to reveal a dangerous level of UV exposure as part of the institute’s sun safety message.

Scolyer, who is going through world-first treatment with immunotherapy and a personalised cancer vaccine after being diagnosed with a brain tumour last year, said the King subtly acknowledged what he was going through in a discreet conversation.

“He said ‘I’m sorry to hear about your own difficult cancer journey’,” he said. “And I said ‘likewise’.”

Check out this amazing video shot by reporter Julie Power.

She spoke to royal fans Margaret Cheah from Winston Hills and her friend Judy Scott of North Carlingford, who have travelled around the world to support the royals at William and Kate’s wedding, the diamond jubilee, and Harry and Meghan’s wedding.

Today they were waiting for hours in the sun to see the King.

Members of the public picked out by King Charles and Queen Camilla from the thousands gathered outside the Sydney Opera House have excitedly recalled their royal encounters.

Ella Su, 39, brought her mother-in-law Joan Kelso, 95, from Croydon today. Su said the King came over to meet them after he descended the stairs of the Opera House.

Ella Su and her mother-in-law Joan Kelso.Credit: Penry Buckley

“I shook hands with the King and he said to look after my mother-in-law, to keep her well,” she said.

Less fortunate was Antonio Sneddon, 34, from Waterloo, who had hoped to give the King a fitting present – a miniature model of the Opera House.

“Why not?” he said. “We’re all meeting here at the Opera House,” he said.

Speaking before his unsuccessful attempt to give the King a souvenir from his Australian trip, Sneddon said it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t meet the King and Queen.

“If I don’t, then maybe the next time they come back.”

Queen Camilla has continued to demonstrate loyalty to British design and sustainability by wearing a white dress with navy piping by Fiona Clare, which she wore to Wimbledon last year.

On that occasion Camilla shielded her eyes from the sun with tortoiseshell aviator-style sunglasses but she arrived at the Opera House with blue-tinged sunglasses that protected her from spitting sausages from her earlier engagement.

Queen Camilla and King Charles at the Opera House. Credit: Wolter Peeters

Camilla’s wardrobe has alternated between Clare’s designs and dresses by Anna Valentine.

Valentine helped design Camilla’s wedding dress for the civil ceremony at Windsor when she married King Charles in 2005.

For accessories, Queen Camilla restrained herself from raiding the royal jewellery box and appears to be wearing a version of the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police badge as a brooch on her dress.

In 2012, as Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla became the first Colonel in Chief of the organisation. On that occasion, at Victoria Barracks in Paddington, the Queen made a speech noting that soldiers were “never off duty, rather like my husband”.

After waiting patiently, standing at attention for an hour, primary school children are finally letting loose. They’re dancing to lyrics urging them to “follow their dreams”.

After meeting scores of loyal royal fans – the Queen stopped to admire a very cute baby in the crowd – the King and Queen are now moving onto the Navy fleet review portion of the visit.

The children performed a dance routine.Credit: Nine News

English actress Joanna Lumley, of Absolutely Fabulously fame, was one of the first to greet the King and Queen as they made their long-awaited visit to the Sydney Opera House.

The King and Queen walked up the steps of the Opera House before meeting with a selected group of VIPs, including Lumley, before waving to the thousands waiting on the forecourt below.

King Charles and Queen Camilla posed for photographs with the Harbour Bridge in the background as a helicopter flew above with an Australian flag.

Joanna Lumley meets King Charles and Queen Camilla. Credit: Nine News

The King and Queen are on their way to the Opera House where royal fans are excitedly awaiting their arrival.

The King has been busy at smaller engagements through the afternoon including a meeting with the Governor-General and a King’s Foundation reception at Admiralty House.

King Charles also visited the Melanoma Institute where he met with Australians of the Year professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer. He also met Nine News presenter Peter Overton, a Melanoma Institute ambassador.

Crowds wait for the King and Queen. Credit: Wolter Peeters

The forecourt of the Opera House is a sea of plastic union jack hats and Australian flags, as thousands of people eagerly await the arrival of King Charles and Queen Camilla.

The security screening at the entry gates has prohibited banners (flowers have been allowed through), but that hasn’t stopped royal fans finding original ways to show their support.

Kyla King, 56, from the Central Coast has knitted herself a sunhat designed to resemble the Crown Jewels. She has met members of the Royal Family before, including Prince Harry and Catherine, Princess of Wales, and has even shaken Queen Camilla’s hand.

Crowds swell at the Opera House. Credit: Wolter Peeters

But she still regrets not seeing the King, when as Prince of Wales, he appeared at the Opera House in 1983, alongside Diana, Princess of Wales.

“Usually I’m right at the front, but I didn’t come down early today,” she said.

“I’d like to meet them but so would everybody else I guess.”

Patrick Moli, 37, who moved to Sydney from Fiji a few months ago, is wearing his Australian flag in his hair. Fiji was originally planned as stop on this royal tour, but was scrapped following the King’s cancer diagnosis. Moli said he came down because he worried the monarch’s ill-health meant this could be his “only chance to see the King.”

Around an hour out from the King and Queen’s appearance and security is ramping up outside the Opera House.

A sniper is in place on top of one of the building’s sails, keeping an eagle eye on the crowd from above.

A sniper takes position on top of the Opera House Credit: Wolter Peeters

The queue for the security screening is long but moving fast. Attendees and their bags are being ushered through X-ray scanners.

A NSW Police sniper prepares for the arrival of the King and Queen. Credit: Wolter Peeters