The second reigning British monarch to visit our shores!
On the 18th of October, King Charles III and Queen Camilla will arrive in Australia. The first visit to a British Realm by Charles since acceding the throne in September of 2022, this is the first occasion that a reigning British king has visited Australia. Indeed, after his beloved mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Charles becomes only the second reigning British monarch to visit Australia, and the first to do so since 2011.
Although only Elizabeth II and Charles III will have visited as reigning monarchs, the British Royal Family has a long history of tours to Australia. Son of Queen Victoria and younger brother of King Edward VII, Prince Alfred was the first member of the Royal Family to land on our shores, touring Australia over the summer of 1867/68. The future King George V visited not long after, in 1881, as a 15-year-old midshipman in training, along with his ill-fated older brother, Prince Albert Victor. The future king would return in 1901, when he opened the first Australian Commonwealth Parliament.
Three sons of King George V also visited Australia between WWI and WWII. Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII), toured in 1920 to thank Australians for their efforts during the Great War. His younger brother, Albert, Duke of York (the future King George VI) visited in 1926. The arrival in Sydney of the Duke and his wife, the future Queen Mother, drew a crowd of more than a million people – the first time such a crowd had gathered for any event in Australia! The third son of King George V, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, visited in the 1930s, and liked the place so much he stayed! Well, that’s not exactly true – the Duke returned to Australia after WWII and became the first and only Royal Governor-General, serving until 1947.
The first reigning British monarch to visit Australia was very nearly King George VI, but ill-health scotched plans to tour in both 1948-49 and 1952. Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, were due to travel in place of George VI in 1952, but those plans were put on hold when the king died in April of that year. Crowned in 1953, Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning British monarch to land on our shores when she arrived at Farm Cove, Sydney, in February of 1954.
An extensive nationwide tour, an astonishing 75% of the Australian population was able to see Elizabeth II at least once before her departure in April. This would be the first of sixteen Royal Tours of Australia made by Elizabeth II, with the last taking place in 2011. Now, her son, King Charles III, will pick up the mantle, when he and Queen Camilla land in Australia on October the 18th.
On that day, their Majesties will touch down in Canberra, where they will be welcomed to Parliament House by the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. The king will address a reception for political and community leaders, as well as prominent Australians, beginning a packed 5-day schedule, with the visit shortened due to the king’s ongoing treatment for cancer. Together, their Majesties will lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial, visit the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial, and conduct a Fleet Review of the Royal Australian Navy in Sydney Harbour. Individually, their Majesties will pursue issues that are particularly close to their hearts.
The King will visit CSIRO, learning about the organisation’s endeavours in the battle against bushfires, as well as meeting Australians of the Year Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer to discuss their work in helping cancer patients. Highlighting her passion for reading and literacy, the Queen will meet children taking part in a Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition Workshop in Sydney, as well as meeting representatives of the domestic violence charity GIVIT. The whirlwind tour will conclude when their Majesties fly to Samoa to attend the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
For those seeking a permanent memento of this major landmark in Australian history, we have a great variety of King Charles III coins available for the occasion!
