Sydney’s plea to travel-weary King Charles and Queen Camilla: ‘Come on down to the Everest’
Touching down on Friday night after a gruelling 24 hour flight from London – admittedly spent in First Class – the 75-year-old was hoping for a day off. But Sydney has other ideas.
Spare a thought for King Charles as he begins his 17th, and possibly last, tour of Australia.
Having touched down on Friday night after a gruelling 24-hour flight from London – admittedly spent in first class – the 75-year-old was hoping for a day off.
A day to relax at genteel Admiralty House before a Sunday morning church service kicks off the official tour. But Sydney has other ideas. First, there’s the $5m race at Royal Randwick on Saturday named in his honour.
Organisers of The Everest remain hopeful – in the face of considerable odds – that the King and Queen will make an 11th-hour appearance at the event, and in particular at the King Charles III Stakes, run over 1600m.
The King didn’t put the race on his schedule, but it seems everyone else has.
“I’m not going to make that demand of him, but I have had a look at the royal itinerary and I understand he has Saturday off,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said.
“I couldn’t think of a more fun thing to do than go to The Everest on a Saturday afternoon, but that’s up to him.”
Even the chairman of Australian Monarchist League, Philip Benwell, chipped in: “There was an expectation that the King would be at the King Charles III Stakes, it was delayed to fit in with his visit, and if he can’t make it many people will be very disappointed. If the queen (Elizabeth) were here she would move heaven and earth to attend.”
So, no pressure.
In an Instagram post an hour before they arrived in Sydney on Friday night, the King and Queen were giving nothing away, but said: “We are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special.”
They were met by the great and the good of Australia on the tarmac of Sydney airport – Anthony Albanese, Governor-General Samantha Mostyn and Mr Minns were there to shake the royal hands. But the real VIPs meeting the royals were cancer survivor Ky Exelby, 12, and his sister Charlotte. Ky, who told the Make-a-Wish Foundation that his great hope was to meet the King, handed posies to Charles and Camilla.
A lighting storm and torrential rail descended on Sydney Airport to welcome the royals. “Typical London weather,” said Lawrence Behr, who braved the conditions to get a sight of them.
Mr Behr, a South African now living in Sydney, said the King’s arrival was hugely significant, particularly given his battles with cancer. He couldn’t pass up the chance to catch a glimpse of the royals. “It’s great to say I saw him, something to tell my kids,” he said.
On past visits the biggest threats to Charles’s health have come from unruly protesters. In 1994, student activist David Kang fired blanks at the then-prince from a starter pistol. But that was 30 years ago. Charles wasn’t hurt, and Kang has gone on to become a criminal barrister.
Now the King has been diagnosed with cancer, although it’s understood he is “pausing” treatment while on tour. His daytime schedule has been pared down and his evenings largely left free. He is said to be travelling with two doctors in tow.
It’s a measure of the importance Charles places on Australia that he is making the journey at all. His only other international trip since his cancer diagnosis was to France for D-Day commemorations in June. After Australia, their majesties head to Samoa for a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. A side trip to New Zealand, which had been considered, was called off on medical advice.
Anti-royal protesters have wised up that most Australians – whatever they feel about the nation needing its own head of state – have a measure of affection for Charles. Or, at the least, think we should put on a decent welcome. No protests are planned but the Australian Republican Movement has invited supporters to “wave goodbye to royal reign”, selling T-shirts depicting the royals as ageing rock stars on their “farewell Oz tour”. By all accounts the “exclusive merch” isn’t catapulting off the shelves.
The King was warmly welcomed by Mr Albanese, notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s long-standing support for an Australian head of state.
Mr Albanese appointed an assistant minister for the republic when he took office, but abolished the position in a reshuffle in July. After the debacle of the referendum on a voice to parliament there is next to no chance of the PM moving for another one on a republic.
For his part, Charles has once again repeated exactly what his mother said for decades: whether Australia becomes a republic is a matter for the Australian public.
The ball is in our court, not his.
No one expects a repeat of Charles’s 1983 visit, when huge crowds turned out for a glimpse of the then-prince and his wife, Diana. But a claim by The Guardian that Charles will be met with “a wall of lazy republicanism” might be news to the police and officials preparing for a crowd of more than 10,000 expected to welcome him at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday.
According to columnist Van Badham, “precisely none of our state government premiers will deign to meet him”.
This generation of premiers “symbolise how much easier it is politically to just do something else rather than engage in empty rituals around a distant British institution”, Badham claimed, somehow missing that Mr Minns will meet the King no less than three times after greeting him on his flying visit.
There’s a housing project on Tuesday morning, a community barbecue that afternoon – hosted by Mr Minns – and then the Sydney Opera House event – also hosted by Mr Minns. On Friday night the sails of the Opera House were lit up to greet the King as he flew into Sydney – an honour also bestowed by Mr Minns.
Not much royalty-avoidance there.
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