Charles and Camilla in Australia 2015: Royals visit Canberra
An eclectic bunch of Australians have been invited to dine with Charles and Camilla at Admiralty House | Who made the cut?
Michelle Payne rode a prince to victory in the Melbourne Cup and she’ll be sharing canapés with another when she attends a dinner in honour of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall tomorrow night.
Payne, former prime minister John Howard, author Jackie French and Australian of the Year Rosie Batty are among a list of over 50 distinguished guests who have been invited to the event.
Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove will host the dinner at Admiralty House, their official residence in Sydney, to mark Prince Charles’s 14th visit to Australia and Camilla’s second trip.
Other high-achieving guests include Vice-Chief of Defence, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Michael Thawley, the presiding officers of federal parliament, Tony Smith and Stephen Parry, and Young Australian of the Year Drisana Levitzke-Gray. Business figures Anthony Pratt, Elizabeth Proust and Dick Smith will also attend.
When the republican met the Prince
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a staunch republican says Prince Charles will become King of Australia unless the constitution changes, which he conceded could be challenging.
The comments came ahead of a meeting between the Prime Minister and Prince of Wales at Government House this afternoon.
“If Charles becomes the King of the United Kingdom, as I’ve got no doubt he will be, unless our constitution has been changed, he will become the King of Australia,” Mr Turnbull said.
“The opportunities for the country are enormous; the opportunities for constitutional change are somewhat more challenging than the opportunities for strong economic growth.”
Earlier Labor leader Bill Shorten said he hoped Mr Turnbull would be “polite and courteous to the future king”.
“I’ve met Prince Charles before, he’s a very nice person. And of course ever though I am a republican, personally I’ll just be as polite as I would be with any visiting head of state,” Mr Shorten told ABC Radio.
“I won’t give Malcolm Turnbull etiquette lessons in terms of how he deals with Prince Charles.”
Mr Turnbull later noted Prince Charles was not a head of state, as Mr Shorten mistakenly said, but the Queen’s heir.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne predicted Australians’ support for the monarchy will decline once Prince Charles is crowned king.
“I am a republican and I think there’s a lot of passion for having an Australian head of state,” Mr Pyne told Adelaide radio station 5AA earlier today.
“But I also think there’s a great deal of respect for the British royal family, particularly the Queen.
“I think this debate will fire up much more when the Queen is no longer on the throne.
“The Australian public might have a different view (then) than they do now.”
Royals honour war dead
Charles and Camilla have spent the day in Canberra where they braved the rain during a Remembrance Day ceremony. A sea of umbrellas covered the grounds outside the Australian War Memorial, where the royal couple and thousands of others attended the annual event.
The royal couple arrived at Fairbairn airport and were greeted by umbrella-holding Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy.
Sure to be feeling right at home, the dark clouds rolled in and the rain fell heavier.
It was a busy schedule for the royal couple’s day in Canberra, who headed first to the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Australian War Memorial. Among the VIPs attending the service were former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott.
The AWM’s director Brendan Nelson told Sky News: “We’re Australians. The most important visitors here today are our veterans and none more so than the families of the 42 men who’ve given their lives for us as a consequence of the war in Afghanistan.’’
The royal family acknowledged the extraordinary service of a young Aboriginal labourer a century after he signed up to “well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King” in World War I.
Prince Charles placed a poppy next to the name of Private Maitland Madge on a wall of the Australian War Memorial as part of the Remembrance Day ceremony.
The Prince and Duchess were gifted a box made from Lone Pine and jarrah, as well as pens, a book and a country music album, after they took part in the ceremony.
Dr Nelson presented the gifts to the royal couple, noting the box was handmade and the result of hours of work. “As I open it, you see a photograph of the Duke of Gloucester planting that small sapling in 1934 here on the grounds of the memorial,” Dr Nelson said. “It is made from Lone Pine and jarrah. You slide it out and you’ll be able to write.”
Prince Charles and Camilla were also given a book The Promise, written by former commando Jamie Zimmermann, and country music singer Lee Kernaghan’s Spirit of the Anzacs music album.
“It is the top selling album in Australia, which isn’t One Direction,” Dr Nelson joked.
Here’s one prepared earlier
Then it was all about truffles for Camilla, who joined Lucy Turnbull to taste some of the culinary delicacy at local business French Black Truffles of Canberra.
Braving more rain Camilla and Mrs Turnbull were treated to a truffle hunting demonstration.
It’s not truffle season but the pair saw a simulation of what happens as Samson the black labrador weaved his way around the trees.
Camilla sniffed the special (and sneakily hidden) find dug up by French Black Truffles manager Jayson Mesman, after being briefed about the farm by owner Sherry McCardle-English.
Then it was off to taste test. Damian Brabender, the executive chef at Sage restaurant who has met royalty in the past, was on hand to provide the Duchess with some truffle delicacies.
She ooed while sampling truffle-infused cheese and honey and smiled tasting freshly-scrambled truffle eggs and ice cream. It was best eaten with popcorn, Brabender later said.
“The food was delicious. It was a real treat,” Mrs Turnbull said, revealing her husband Malcolm was a truffle fan.
She compared the “unpredictable” truffle ice cream to her experience tasting chocolate chicken once in Mexico.
“It was most delicious.”
Ms McCardle-English said she made mention of the very British weather to Camilla on the way to planting a French oak tree to commemorate her visit.
“I think she recognised this was very similar to home,” the owner said.
The fact the farm is growing truffles commercially and successfully in the southern hemisphere is wonderful, she told the prime minister’s wife.
Prince Charles meanwhile visited the National Museum of Australia for a guided tour and meet with Canberra school children.
The couple regrouped at the National Arboretum Canberra — always a popular choice for the royals — where they each planted a pin oak tree.
Their final stop of the Canberra visit will be at Government House, where Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten — both staunch republicans — will meet the royal couple. Representatives of Soldier On will also be in attendance.
While Prince Charles and the Prime Minister talk with wounded veterans, a wounded civilian and the parents of killed soldier Private Robert Poate, Camilla will be taken on a drive through the grounds of Government House to view its gardens and kangaroos.
How the nation remembered
Around the nation, Australians paused to remember those who died in wars on the 97th anniversary of the end of World War I.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Lieutenant Governor Marilyn Warren and Air Vice-Marshal Chris Spence laid a wreath at the Stone of Remembrance in Melbourne before the Lieutenant Governor addressed the crowd.
“Today we come together to give thanks, pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate price not only for their country, but for the peace of all humanity,” she said.
Thousands of people descended on Sydney’s Martin Place to mark Remembrance Day.
NSW Premier Mike Baird and RSL state president Rod White were among the first to lay wreaths at the base of the cenotaph. Mr White then delivered the Remembrance oath to crowds who stood silent at 11am in persistent rain, many cloaked in ponchos or huddled under umbrellas. Hundreds of returned servicemen, women and their families were among those gathered.
Mr White said this year’s event was unlike anything he had experienced in years. “To see so many people, particularly young people, embrace our military heritage as a proud part of our history is something really special,” Mr White said.
“At one stage there were so many people that you couldn’t see between Pitt and George streets, and hundreds of people stayed around long after the minute’s silence.” Mr White said Remembrance Day was not just about honouring the more than 100,000 Australians who have died at war.
“These poppies are as much about the young servicemen and women returning from ongoing conflicts who are struggling to settle back into everyday life,” he said.
Next stop Sydney
Sydneysiders will get just once chance to get up close and personal with Charles and the Duchess when they tour the city tomorrow.
Arriving in Sydney from Canberra tonight, the royal couple’s busy schedule includes eight official events.
This includes chatting to officers at the NSW Police Mounted Unit, commemorating Victoria Barracks’ 100th anniversary and dining with government officials at two formal receptions.
The only chance royals fans will get to chat to the heir to the throne and his second wife will be during a meet and greet at Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD just after noon.
They’re expected to walk around with NSW Premier Mike Baird for a short time before heading off to a Government House reception with the NSW Governor David Hurley.
The pair will also split up several times. The Duchess will check out food charity Oz Harvest’s headquarters, while the Prince of Wales will attend separate roundtables on leadership and post-disaster stress with Air Marshall Chief Sir Angus Houston.
The final event on the couple’s itinerary is the dinner hosted by Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove at Admiralty House.
The pair will then spend Friday relaxing in Sydney before travelling to Western Australia on Saturday.
With AAP
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