King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived in the middle of a downpour in Sydney tonight for their historic and hugely anticipated royal visit to .
The heavens opened around half an hour before Their Majesties were due to touch down at Sydney Airport for the start of their historic six-day royal tour to the country.
But just as they were about to step off their plane the rain eased off, enabling them to be greeted by a host of dignitaries including Prime Minster Anthony Albanese.
However Camilla, 77, still put her umbrella up and walked gingerly down the stairs of the plane and onto the Tarmac.
She was wearing a royal blue silk crepe dress by Fiona Clare, adorned with the n wattle brooch – a gift from the n people to Queen Elizabeth II.
The couple landed at 8.30pm local time (10.30am UK) on an n government plane, which picked them up from Singapore after they flew there commercially.
But a plan to mark the occasion by lighting up the sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House with a magnificent loop of images from previous royal visits ran into trouble.
It was delayed by a Cunard cruise ship called the Queen Elizabeth which blocked the projector after failing to sail out on time because of the bad weather, reported ITV.
In a message posted on X before their arrival, Charles and Camilla said: ‘Ahead of our first visit to as King and Queen, we are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special. See you there!’
The message was accompanied with archive footage of previous royal tours, including the late Queen’s first visit in 1954.
It is the King’s first visit as the country’s new sovereign and, fascinatingly, the first time in history a King of has ever been to the country where he is head of state.
The only monarch to have visited so far was Queen Elizabeth II, the last time being just over a decade ago in 2011 to mark her Golden Jubilee.
Her father, King George VI, was unable to travel there due to his ill health, while King George V never attempted the lengthy journey.
It comes as ‘s six state premiers are expected to miss a reception for Charles and Camilla in Canberra on Monday.
Victoria’s Jacinta Allan, South n premier Peter Malinauskas and Mr Minns have cabinet meetings to attend, Queensland premier Steven Miles is busy working on his election campaign, Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff is on a US trade mission and Western ‘s premier Roger Cook has other commitments.
Today, the King and Queen’s official arrival in was marked by a formal welcome by several key federal and state representatives, including the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of , Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn, and her spouse, His Excellency Simeon Beckett.
She is the monarch’s most senior representative in-country and will be hosting the couple at her Admiralty House – her Victorian Italianate sandstone official residence, in the suburb of Kirribilli, which boasts commanding views of the Sydney Opera House – throughout their six-day visit.
The Prime Minister of , the Honourable Anthony Albanese MP, was also amongst the welcoming party.
Before they depart Sydney Airport, the Queen will be presented with a posy by a young boy named Ky, 12, from near Adelaide in South , whose wish to meet Their Majesties is movingly being granted by the Make a Wish Foundation.
He will be accompanied his sister Charlotte.
Later at Admiralty House, the King and Queen will enjoy a brief cup of tea with the Prime Minister and his partner, Jodie Haydon, before retiring to recover from their inevitable jet lag.
Later tonight the iconic Sydney Opera House was lit up with a magnificent loop of images from previous royal visits in honour of the occasion.
Bravely the King, 75, has decided to pause his ongoing cancer treatment – as revealed exclusively by the Daily Mail last week – in order to undertake the visit to , which will be immediately followed by a state visit to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
In all the 30,000-mile round-trip will take him away from home for 11 days.
However doctors are sufficiently pleased with the progress since his shock cancer diagnosis earlier this year for him to do this.
A beach-side kiss from a model in a bikini, a shooting security scare and a formative teenage trip to the Outback are just some of the King’s experiences in over the years.
Charles has embarked on his 16th official visit and 17th overall to – and his first as the country’s monarch and for Queen Camilla in her role as consort.
The pair last travelled around the globe to the Commonwealth realm in 2018.
The prince was pictured in a feather headdress known as a mulka string and was given a spiritual blessing by the world didgeridoo master in the small Aboriginal community of Yirrkala in Northeast Arnhem Land.
Camilla paddled barefoot on Broadbeach on the Gold Coast – but Charles kept his brogues on – and the couple attended the Commonwealth Games.
In 2015, Charles and Camilla were given their own elaborate boomerangs by a local artist during a visit to Kings Park in Perth, Western .
A Diamond Jubilee tour in 2012 saw Charles and Camilla cuddle koalas at Government House in Adelaide, with Charles quipping ‘something ominous will run down’ about the animals’ reputation for having weak bladders.
As a 17-year-old prince, Charles spent two terms at Timbertop, a remote outpost of the Geelong Church of England Grammar School in Melbourne in 1966 as an exchange student.
Afterwards, he described it as a ‘most wonderful experience’.
He swam on the Barrier Reef, ran cattle in Queensland and attended a feast in New Guinea.
But he admitted that on occasions he was referred to by the traditional n epithet ‘pommy b*****d’.
His first official visit to came in 1970 when he and sister Princess Anne joined Queen Elizabeth II’s tour.
In 1979, the eligible bachelor prince returned to represent his mother for the 150th anniversary of the state of Western .
But the visit is famous for an encounter he had with a bikini-clad woman on a beach.
Charles was pounced on by model Jane Priest while taking an early morning dip, and images of the wave-side kiss were printed around the world.
Ms Priest later divulged the incident on Cottesloe Beach in Perth was a publicity stunt to try to make Charles appear more accessible.
She also recalled how the ‘adorable’ prince told her when she put her hands on his chest: ‘I can’t touch you.’
Within four years, Charles had married Lady Diana Spencer and they had welcomed his first child, Prince William.
The Prince and Princess of Wales undertook a six-week tour to and New Zealand in 1983.
But in a modern move, going against royal convention, they took their baby son with them on the long-haul journey, rather than leaving him behind in the UK with nannies.
Ten-month-old William attended a photocall and crawled across a rug on the lawns of Government House in Auckland, New Zealand, watched by his parents.
Charles and Diana’s tours to were, however, subject to tension.
Diana told her biographer Andrew Morton that she was thrown into the deep end and overwhelmed by the adulation she faced from the crowds in 1983 during her first major overseas trip, while Charles became jealous at the attention she received.
In 1988, the pair were pictured standing side by side in the sunshine in Wollongong, south of Sydney – but by then their relationship was in tatters.
Charles had already turned to his now-wife Camilla Parker Bowles and Diana was having an affair with cavalry officer James Hewitt.
More than 30 years after the Waleses took William to , he returned with his own son Prince George and wife the then-Duchess of Cambridge.
They embarked on a royal tour to and New Zealand in 2014.
Nine-month-old George was dubbed the ‘republican slayer’ for boosting the monarchy’s appeal on his first official overseas tour.
He met a bilby named after him, stole another baby’s toy on a play date and, according to his mother Kate, gained an extra fat roll while he was away.
Royal baby news coincided with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2018 tour, with Harry and Meghan announcing she was pregnant on the eve of a high-profile 16-day trip to , New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga.
Highlights saw the Sussexes take a trip to Bondi beach where they were presented with garlands and sat on the sand to meet members of surfing community group One Wave.
Harry ran into difficulties during his gap year in 2003 when he worked as a jackaroo – an n cowboy – on a cattle ranch in Queensland.
He was besieged by photographers, sparking fears he might have to abandon the trip.
Sydney meanwhile was the scene of a major royal security scare for Harry’s father.
In 1994, there were dramatic scenes when student David Kang was wrestled to the ground after firing a starting pistol as Charles stood to make a speech.
The late Queen was the first reigning monarch to set foot in , and made 16 trips in total – the first in 1954 and her last in 2011.
There was controversy during the Queen and Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh’s Golden Jubilee tour of 2002 when Philip asked an Aboriginal businessman: ‘Do you still throw spears at each other?’
Aboriginal cultural park owner William Brim replied: ‘No, we don’t do that any more.’
Mr Brim, who met the duke during a royal visit to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Park in northern Cairns, branded Philip a ‘larrikin’ (joker) and said he was not offended but described the question as ‘naive’.
On a tour by the Queen in 1992, the country’s then premier Paul Keating was dubbed the ‘Lizard of Oz’ after cameras caught him giving the monarch a helping hand at Canberra’s Parliament House by touching her back.
Charles III is now King of , but his mother once thought about giving him a different job while he was waiting to accede to the throne.
She considered him as a future governor-general of – the Queen’s representative in the realm – but only once he was married, archive documents from the 1970s suggested.
Speculation in the press had reached the prince, then a Royal Navy officer, who said in a interview if there was interest in him taking up the role he would be ‘delighted to consider it’.
Buckingham Palace have not revealed what type of cancer he is suffering from or the treatment he is receiving.
All precautions are being taken to protect his health and recovery process, nevertheless.
As head of state he will be accompanied, it can be revealed, not by one but two UK doctors on the trip: one who specialises in general medicine and the other in ‘acute medicine’.
His health will be closely monitored by his own medics, who no doubt will have made arrangements with local hospitals in the unlikely event that further treatment should be needed.
As always his medical team will travel with a supply of his blood to ensure a match if ever a transfusion was needed, which is standard practice for the head of state.
Charles’ programme of engagements has also been ‘tweaked’ in order to pace events slightly better.
He and wife Camilla, 77, will enjoy a rest day on Saturday in order to recuperate from the flight, and aside from hosting the official ‘King’s dinner’ at CHOGM for Commonwealth Heads of State in Samoa next week, there are no evening engagements.
However the King will still be frequently attending around eight engagements a day through the trip and claims that staff have mandatorily factored in rest period every 45 minutes have been described as ‘so wide of the mark’.
A source told the Mail: ‘Yes, a dinner was ruled out in early planning to help lighten the programme and some downtime built in across the ten days.
‘But, no, His Majesty most definitely doesn’t need to rest every 45 minutes as people will see when the programme begins.’
The couple’s programme will take in all the normal formality and fun of a royal tour – from meetings with senior politicians to a traditional barbie.
The Queen will also be championing interests close to her heart including work against domestic violence and the promotion of literacy.
During the visit Charles will meet colleagues Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer, named as ns of the year 2024 in recognition of their pivotal work on melanoma, one of ‘s most common cancers.
Other highlights will see the royal couple spending time in the capital Canberra meeting leading figures and paying their respects to the country’s fallen.
Inevitably the visit has also raised debate about republicanism and the possibility of ‘s independence from the Crown.
As revealed by the Daily Mail last Saturday, Charles has ‘politely declined’ a meeting with the n Republic Movement (ARM) but express his ‘deep love and affection’ for the country and emphasised that its future is a matter for its people to decide.
ARM has itself praised the ‘important contribution’ of the Royal Family and emphasised it is not anti-monarchist, saying it would like the country to retain close ties with the UK and Commonwealth.
However it says it believes it is now time to have an n-born head of state.
The last referendum on the issue was held in 1999 and saw almost 55 per cent vote no to becoming a republic.
Earlier this year Prime Minister Mr Albanese, himself a committed republican, kicked the issue into the long grass for the time being.
His government has put long-held plans for a new vote hold, saying it is ‘not a priority’ but the issue is still a matter of much debate.
Chris Minns, premier of New South Wales, is another republican and will be among the party of dignitaries greeting the King and Queen.
However Mr Minns said: ‘I’m a republican but I’m going to treat him as an honoured guest in NSW, which he genuinely is. I hope he’ll have a great time here and I’ll be on my best behaviour.’
Interestingly, n republicans do not plan to protest this week, saying they prefer to use the royal visit to amplify discussions around their cause on the and will use it to raise funds by selling ‘Farewell to Oz’ merchandise and tea towels.
The only expected protests will, bizarrely, be by British activists from anti-monarchist group Republic.
They claim not to be making a statement about what ns should do but say they want to challenge the King’s role in representing the UK abroad.
This has angered many ns, however, who say the British campaigners are interfering in their constitutional process.
Philip Benwell, national chair of the n Monarchist League (AML) said: ‘We only hope that the proposed protests by republicans, particularly by the head of English Republic, will not detract from the visit and not put people off from attending. He may have links to but we don’t want him here.’
He praised the King’s ‘bravery’ in attempting the ‘arduous’ journey in spite of his cancer diagnosis.
‘It’s very brave of him to do so,’ Mr Benwell said, adding that there was an enormous amount of ‘goodwill’ for the royal visit.
‘There is a huge amount of affection for the Royal Family. People have a high regard for the King, for the work he has done, for his commitment to duty as the [late] Queen was committed to duty, as her father was before her, and before him George V,’ he said.
Mr Benwell said the AML had been ‘mobilising’ its supporters to hand our n flags to welcome their king with.
As for the issue of a republic, he explained: ‘It’s not so much about the King as an individual or a royal but about our system of government and our constitution, which is based on the Crown which best protects our freedoms and our democracy.
‘It keeps politicians from absolute power. Having the King… as our sovereign head of state and protector of the n constitution means that other politicians and big business cannot influence the system.
‘The system is impartial and that is why we have had an unparalleled stability in this country for over 100 years since our constitution first came into being in 1901.
‘Our founding fathers put the constitution in the hands of the people so that only the people could amend it.’
The AML’s spokesman for the tour, Alexander Voltz, said the organisation was preparing more than 15,000 ns flags to hand out to fans awaiting the royals.
New South Wales Police declined to be drawn on whether the English-based protests that have been planned had added to their security pressure but said: ‘A police operation will be undertaken during the duration of the visit of His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty Queen Camilla later this month.
‘The priority for the NSW Police Force is to ensure the safety of the visiting dignitaries and the community.’
His Majesty’s relationship with began in 1966, when, as Prince of Wales, he spent two terms at Geelong Grammar School. In total, he has visited sixteen times, both whilst serving in The Royal Navy and on official visits.
This will be Her Majesty The Queen’s fourth visit to , her first being in 2012, when she accompanied His Majesty to the country as part of The late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee tour.
Dr George Gross, royal historian and visiting research fellow at King’s College London, previously said: ‘This is a tour of significant firsts. Although King Charles III has travelled to many times, this will be his first visit there as sovereign and the first tour to the country by a reigning monarch since 2011.
‘It will also be the King’s first official overseas tour since his cancer diagnosis, his first to a Commonwealth realm and, while visiting Samoa, he will lead the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of his reign.
‘It is notable too that he is visiting in the year after his coronation, as this echoes the 1954 tour by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II following her coronation in 1953.’