King Charles and Queen Camilla touched down in Sydney, Australia a short time ago, and the photos in this post are from the official greeting on the tarmac. As I mentioned earlier this week, Charles’s first royal tour, as king, of one of his “realms” has become international news. Charles and Camilla were actually aiming for a quieter visit, but it’s become politically fraught. If Charles or Camilla misspeak or stumble in any way, it will be a huge conversation. The Washington Post dipped into covering the tour too, with this piece: “For Charles’s first visit as king, Australians are royally unimpressed.” Ouch.
When King Charles III arrives in Australia on Friday, he’ll receive rock star treatment — just not in the way he might have hoped. Instead of drawing the massive crowds that often awaited his mother, Charles’s first trip here as monarch is likely to be a mellower affair. The king will meet with Australia’s prime minister, review its naval fleet and greet supporters outside the Opera House.
But many state leaders are staying home. And perhaps the liveliest reception will be from members of Australia’s republican movement, who are selling sarcastic “Monarchy: The Farewell Oz Tour” T-shirts, as if the royals were an aging band on the brink of retirement.
“It’s very strange,” said Dennis Altman, a sociologist at La Trobe University in Melbourne who has studied the monarchy. “Here is a man who theoretically is our head of state coming to Australia two years after he came to the throne, but there is less interest and enthusiasm than I can remember for any previous royal tour.”
But his visit also comes at a quiet time in Australia’s decades-long debate over whether to become a republic. Rarely has the issue seemed further from people’s minds since the failure of a constitutional referendum in 1999, when 54.9 percent voted against replacing the queen with an Australian president as head of state. As a result, both avid monarchists and zealous republicans are hoping to use the trip to drum up enthusiasm, even though most Australians — more worried about the cost of living or the U.S. presidential election — may simply shrug.
“There is almost a complacency,” said Michelle Arrow, a historian at Macquarie University in Sydney. “It’s like, yeah, we’re a monarchy but it seems okay, we haven’t had any coups, we’re a pretty stable democracy.”
The crown may not crave complacency, but it might welcome it at this point. When Queen Elizabeth II died two years ago, there were fears that the coronation of her less popular son would cause Commonwealth realms to scrap him as head of state. That hasn’t happened.
“Here is a man who theoretically is our head of state” lmao – I mean, at every technical level, Charles IS the head of state in Australia. He is “king of Australia.” Which is why it was so weird last year when Prince William, the “future king of Australia,” refused to travel to his future realm out of laziness. It’s also weird – and I will keep bringing this up! – that Charles decided to jettison long-standing plans for his first year on the throne. He was supposed to visit most, if not ALL, of the British realms soon after he became king. He did not. Anyway, I have no idea how this tour will go, but the international press is definitely paying attention.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Getty.