Meet the super fans preparing for a very different royal visit
A commemorative tea towel changed Jan Hugo’s life.
In a crowd along Sydney’s Martin Place in 2015, the Hunter Valley resident was waiting for a glimpse of the then-Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. As she held up the cloth, printed to celebrate the royal couple’s 2005 wedding, Camilla made a beeline for her.
“She looked up and laughed and said, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m on the tea towel,’” said Hugo, 66. “I don’t think she’d ever seen herself on a tea towel before.”
Hugo’s shirt, a hand-sewn red number with Union Jack sleeves, quickly attracted Charles’ attention too.
“He came over and rubbed me on the shoulder and said, ‘Oh, I love your shirt,’” she recalled.
“I really felt special. I’ve seen them from a distance, but that was the only time I ever actually got to meet them.”
It is appropriate a piece of memorabilia led to Hugo’s meeting of a lifetime. A Princess Diana coin she bought in 1981 has snowballed into the largest royal collection in the southern hemisphere, with more than 10,000 commemorative cups, plates and newspapers carefully stacked in her Nulkaba home.
2015: Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall greet members of the public in Martin Place.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
Now, the retired retail worker is among scores of royal supporters – heads swimming with memories of Diana in 1983 or William, Catherine and baby George in 2014 – eagerly preparing for King Charles’ first visit as reigning monarch.
The tour, which begins on Friday, will make King Charles the second head of state to set foot on Australian soil, following Queen Elizabeth’s 16 journeys, starting in 1954.
There is a sense this trip will be different. Its Australian leg will be a five-day, slimmed-down affair after the King’s cancer diagnosis earlier this year forced him to cut short more ambitious travel plans. Supporters have discreetly observed the 75-year-old Charles’ first visit as King could be his only one (the Queen’s last visit was in 2011, eleven years before her death).
Charles and Diana arrive at Sydney Opera House in March, 1983.Credit: Getty Images
The King will be welcomed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra, where he will visit the Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander war memorials. He will then move on to Sydney for a fleet review in the harbour and trips to the Royal Botanic Garden and the CSIRO. (Melbourne and Brisbane are not included, to the dismay of royal fans in the two states – Victoria and Queensland – named for a monarch.)
The Australian Monarchist League (AML) is preparing to distribute thousands of miniature Australian flags to members of the public in NSW and the ACT. Previously, the league has organised the ringing of church bells along royal routes, but not this time. Chair Philip Benwell said next week’s itinerary has been kept under tighter wraps, he assumed partly because of the King’s health.
Benwell claimed the AML is “not a royalist organisation” but a monarchist one that lobbies against changes to the Australian constitution, though some might struggle to see the difference.
Philip Benwell is the chair of the Australian Monarchist League. The group is preparing to distribute thousands of Australian flags to members of the public ahead of the royal visit.Credit: Nikki Short
But he spoke fondly of several royal meetings (he will be at receptions for the King in Canberra and Sydney this year), in particular the Queen’s visit in 2000, her first in eight years, following the unsuccessful republic referendum in 1999.
The nation’s leading monarchist said the King even has a personal nickname for him: “the endangered species”.
The republic debate is never far from a royal visit. Australian Republic Movement (ARM) co-chair Esther Anatolitis said this visit is also an opportunity to remind Australians “this isn’t just a visit from a foreign royal family”. ARM polling claims that 40 per cent of Australians are unaware Charles is the head of state.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies accompanies Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Sydney Harbour in 1954, the first of sixteen Australian visits she made during her 70 year reign.Credit: State Library of NSW
“This great big show is coming to town, which, of course, Australian taxpayers are paying for,” Anatolitis said, adding the group is planning an “unexpected and fun campaign” in an attempt to change the conversation around the monarchy.
A 2023 YouGov poll conducted a year into Charles’ reign found 32 per cent of Australians wanted a republic as soon as possible, a small increase, while 35 per cent wanted to remain a constitutional monarchy. The rest wanted to defer a decision on the issue or didn’t know.
Before the Voice referendum, the prime minister flagged the possibility of a republic referendum in his second term if re-elected, but the government said in January the issue was not a priority.
John Macaulay, 47, who works in shipping by day and is organising the AML’s distribution of flags out of a western Sydney warehouse, proudly recalled the “roar from every single man, woman and child” when, as a university student in 2000, he led an impromptu three cheers to the Queen after she visited the Bionic Ear Institute in East Melbourne. He insisted monarchism is gaining ground among younger members, many of whom are travelling interstate to help with the effort.
Among them is Matthew Stratton, 22, a law student from Moorabbin in Victoria, who will be in Canberra for his first royal sighting and to give the King “warm welcome he deserves”.
The young monarchists boast an active social scene, with trips to the pub (Melbourne’s Imperial Hotel), trivia nights, and even a gala ball in Queensland.
Matthew Stratton will travel from Melbourne to Canberra for the royal visit. Credit: Simon Schluter
Stratton does not follow royal gossip, but said he was saddened by the King’s cancer diagnosis.“It was truly like someone in the family getting it.”
Meanwhile, Hugo, who prefers “collector” to “superfan,” said her seven-year-old granddaughter had recently taken an interest in her collection, though her older grandchildren “think Nan’s a bit nuts”.
She travelled to the UK for the coronation last year and plans to be in Sydney on the penultimate day of the visit, October 22, when the King and Queen will attend a community barbecue at Parramatta Park.
Hugo had one piece of advice for those hunting the most precious item in any collection, a royal interaction: dress boldly.
“If you’re just standing there in normal clothes, they’ll just walk straight past,” she said.
“You’ve got to make yourself stand out if you want them to come to you.”
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