King Charles: How Australia ‘has engraved itself upon a part of my soul’

It’s his 17th trip Down Under and his first as monarch — but King Charles’ visit to Sydney and Canberra this week has been a lifetime in the making. Here’s a recap of previous visits.

It’s his 17th trip Down Under and his first as monarch, but King Charles’ visit to Sydney and Canberra this week has been a lifetime in the making.

You might say Australia took the prince and made the man, and the nation has retained a special place in the monarch’s heart.

“Every time I come back to this country, I find I feel more deeply about it and about the people … it has engraved itself upon a part of my soul,” he said previously.

His love affair with the nation began in 1966 when he attended Australia’s Timbertop for two terms. The experience had a profound effect on the 17-year-old who had been unhappy at his austere Scottish school, Gordonstoun. He later described it as, “by far the best part” of his education.

The then Prince Charles is greeted by members of the public during a visit to Brisbane in 2018 Picture: Dan Peled/Pool/AFP

“It was good for the character,” he said in an Australia Day reception in London in 2011: “If you want to develop character, go to Australia.”

From stolen kisses in the surf to gunshots, here are six of his seismic visits Down Under …

1966: Mucking in at school

Prince Charles at Timbertop in 1966.

Charles was famously miserable at Gordonstoun – his father’s alma mater – but, in 1966, the teenager was sent Down Under for a very different experience. And it would have a profound effect on him.

Charles spent two terms at Timbertop, the rugged Victorian campus of Geelong Grammar School. It was a shock at first, but his classmates said he threw himself into it and became “just plain Charles” to them, embracing the outdoor life, including cross-country runs, hikes and woodchopping.

“He settled into it very, very well … and to his great credit, he stayed on for an extra term,” his former schoolmate Chas Armytage told Network Ten.

1979: Receiving a kiss in the surf

Prince Charles is kissed by model Jane Priest at Cottesloe Beach. Picture: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images

When 30-year-old Prince Charles went for a swim at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach, he never expected what would happen next. As he waded out of the surf, in his swimmers, bikini-clad model Jane Priest, 26, ran into the waves and planted a smacker on the prince’s cheek.

A waiting photographer captured a shocked Charles grinning; the photograph made a splash in newspapers all over the world.

1983: Charles and Diana’s first tour

Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, at Uluru in 1983. Picture: Rolls Press/Popperfoto via Getty Images

Four years later, Prince Charles was no longer an eligible bachelor, but a newlywed and toured Australia with his 21-year-old bride, Princess Diana, and nine-month-old baby Prince William. One million Aussies lined to the streets to catch a glimpse of the glamour couple and Diana later explained the profound effect it had on her, and their relationship.

“Everybody always said when we were in the car, ‘Oh we’re in the wrong side, we want to see her, we don’t want to see him,” she revealed in her 1995 Panorama interview.

“The whole world was focusing on me every day … I learned how to be royal in one week.”

1985: Charles and Diana take a second spin

Then prime minister Bob Hawke and his wife Hazel welcome Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1985. Picture: Claude Coirault/Pool/AFP

It was the same story when the couple returned on a second Australian tour, in 1985, and again in 1988.

In Melbourne, in 1985, Charles famously spun Diana around the dance floor to the tune of Isn’t She Lovely. The Princess sported her emerald and diamond choker as a headband, with her Emanuel ball gown and the image remains one of the most famous of the couple.

1994: Gunman fires at Charles in Sydney

A gunman who fired a starting pistol at Prince Charles is held down by security guards.

Behind the scenes, Charles and Diana’s relationship was foundering and the couple separated in 1992.

Two years later, Prince Charles faced drama while giving a speech in Darling Harbour for Australia Day celebrations. As he stood on stage, 23-year-old protester David Kang fired two blanks from a starting pistol, before being bundled to the floor.

A bemused Prince Charles stood by, afterwards being dubbed, “his royal coolness”. Even republican PM Paul Keating conceded, “His control in the circumstances, I think, reflected the professional attitude that he has.”

2012: Charles returns with Camilla

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall holding koalas in 2012. Picture: AAP Image/Morne de Klerk

Almost 30 years after his first visit with Diana, Charles travelled to Australia with second wife Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Although crowds were inevitably much thinner, the couple was welcomed warmly, particularly at the Melbourne Cup.

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