All the best moments from King Charles’ 2024 Australia tour

After a jam-packed five days of engagements, King Charles and Queen Camilla flew out of Australia shortly before 11am local time on Wednesday, October 23rd.

They will now fly to Samoa where they will attend the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting, which will bring together 56 nations.

Prior to meeting members of the public on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt, the royal couple posed for a photo together with the stunning Sydney harbour glistening behind them.

Along with greeting various Sydney Opera house officials and artists, the King spent a considerable amount of time saying hello the scores of well-wishers who had been lining up since the early hours of the morning to meet him.

Throughout her time in Sydney and Canberra, it’s been made clear that Queen Camilla has a soft spot for young royal watchers, and has been photographed making a beeline for them the moment she spots them in crowds!

Thousands of people gathered at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt, hoping to meet King Charles and Queen Camilla.

King Charles was greeted by co-medical directors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer during a visit to the Melanoma Institute of Australia.

During his visit, he toured the facility to explore detection, diagnosis, and treatment technologies, engage with researchers and clinical staff, and meet with current patients.

King Charles attended The King’s Foundation reception at Admiralty House where he was greeted by Mr Dominic Richards, Chair of Hillview Foundation Australia, and Mrs Kristina Murrin, CEO of The King’s Foundation.

King Charles attended the Sustainable Markets Initiative discussion at Admiralty House in Sydney. Charles launched the initiative in 2020 as an attempt to build a coordinated global effort to enable private sector acceleration of global climate, biodiversity and Sustainable Development Goal targets.

As part of the community Barbeque event held at Parramatta Park, Their Majesties were treated to a sheepdog demonstration.

Charles and Camilla attended the community BBQ in Parramatta Park, hosted by Premier Minns and Mrs Anna Minns.

Along with helping flip sausages, Their Majesties met with Chris Minns MP, Premier of New South Wales, and his spouse, Prue Car MP, Deputy Premier of NSW, and her spouse, Tara Moriarty MLC, NSW Minister for Agriculture and Regional NSW, Mr Peter Agnew AM, President of the Surf Life Saving NSW, and Mr John Bennett OAM, President of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW

King Charles visited Cowper Street Development, a NSW Government sustainable affordable housing project in Glebe.

The King toured the construction site and received an update on the development. He met with various important people who contribute to the project, as well as residents of similar Homes NSW social housing projects.

A lucky cohort of students was given the opportunity to speak with Queen Camilla during a visit to Green Square Library.

Queen Camilla visited Refettorio Oz Harvest where she accepted “the most prestigious order” ever bestowed by Australian food rescue charity OzHarvest – the order of the teaspoon.

The Queen helped in the kitchen alongside chef Jez Berwick and picked through flowers to help decorate the meals.

For her first royal engagement of the day, Queen Camilla wore a vibrant blue dress, a huge smile adorning her face as she arrived to Refettorio Oz Harvest in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills.

As part of his visit to the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, King Charles said an adorable hello to five-month-old Jack Rose.

In his first royal engagement of the day, King Charles made an appearance at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence where he participated in a traditional smoking ceremony conducted by representatives from the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.

King Charles and Queen Camilla enjoyed a relaxing stroll through the Australian National Botanic Gardens after a busy day of engagements in Canberra.

Queen Camilla met with school kids at GIVIT, an organisation that facilitates the donation of essential items and services to those experiencing hardship at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Together, the children and Her Majesty took part in a practical workshop together.

Her Majesty has been a patron of GIVIT since 2020 when she supported the organisation during the Black Summer Bushfires. Since that time, she has supported GIVIT’s work assisting people impacted by natural disasters and hardship around the country.

King Charles watched a demonstration of artificial fire at the CSIRO National Bushire Research Laboratory to learn about world-leading burn-over protection systems, and bushfire behaviour research.

Outside of the CSIRO, the King met with several volunteer members of the ACT Rural Fire Service, to learn how they train to reduce the risk of fires in and around Canberra during the warmer months.

His Majesty has had a strong interest over his lifetime in environmental issues, including the impact of bushfires.

With Australia’s Governor-General Sam Mostyn and his wife Queen Camilla watching on, King Charles planted a tree at Government House.

Her Majesty soon followed in his footsteps.

This event was chaired by the Governor-General and chaired by Ms Padma Paman PSM, Executive Director of the Office for Women.

Joining Queen Camilla at this round table discussion were several high-profile advocates who work in this space, including family violence prevention campaigner Ms Rosie Batty AO.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and King Charles were clearly thrilled to be shaking hands following the Parliament House reception – just look at those smiles!

This is the third time audience the PM has had with His Majesty, after meeting at both the funeral of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth and Charles’ May 2023 coronation.

Following the Parliamentary Reception, His Majesty shared remarks with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of the Liberal Party at Government House.

Notably, this was the first time that Mr Dutton had an audience with the King.

King Charles stopped to smell the roses (literally) which were gifted to him by a royal fan as he departed Parliament House.

King Charles spoke at length during the ceremonial welcome and Parliamentary reception.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his fiance Jodie Haydon hosted a reception to honour King Charles and Queen Camilla just before 1pm on Monday.

With Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese watching over them, King Charles and Queen Camilla signed their second Visitor’s book of the day – this time at Parliament House.

King Charles is seen here inspecting members of the Australian Defence Force during a welcome ceremony at Parliament House.

The King could hardly believe his eyes when he spotted an alpaca in the crowds gathered outside the Australian War Memorial.

Dressed in a handsome vest, and with a crown adorned upon his head, it’s clear that Charles was a fan.

In a symbolic representation of the Australian lives lost in the First World War, the Australian War Memorial displays 62,000 handcrafted, red poppies on its grounds.

In the picture above, King Charles and Queen Camilla are seen paying their respects and marvelling at the display.

The King placed a poppy against the name of Private William Punch, while the Queen placed a poppy against the name of Private William James Johnson.

During a visit to the For Our Country – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial, Queen Camilla enthusiastically met with well-wishers, many of whom were children.

To conclude their brief visit to the Australian War Memorial, the King and Queen signed the Visitor’s book.

King Charles lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier at the Australian War Memorial.

Her Majesty was gifted with a stuffed kangaroo, complete with a joey, by royal fans waiting outside the Australian War Memorial.

Soon after arriving in the Australian Capital Territory, the King and Queen were whisked away in a car to the Australian War Memorial – but not before they were able to wave to onlookers!

After their traditional welcome, the royals were greeted by several children who presented the couple with bouquets of flowers.

Pictured here at Ruby and Indigo.

The royals were greeted by Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Serena Williams when they stepped off their plane in Canberra at the RAAF Base Fairbairn, just before 11am on Monday, October 21st.

In his final engagement for the Sunday, the monarch also met with Governor of New South Wales Margaret Beazley.

Margaret is the 39th Governor of New South Wales and was sworn in on May 2nd, 2019. Despite this, she hadn’t formally met the King until the above photo was taken.

In engagement three of the day, The King met with the Governor-General, Her Excellency the Hon Sam Mostyn AC at Admiralty House.

She was sworn in as Governor-General on July 1st, just under two months on from when she was sworn in by His Majesty in a private audience at Buckingham Palace in May.

To celebrate the Bicentenary of the New South Wales Legislative Council, King Charles delivered a speech in the Strangers’ Dining Room at New South Wales Parliament House. Pictured next to him is the President of the Legislative Council Ben Franklin.

“With the sands of time encouraging brevity, it just remains for me to say what a great joy it is to come to Australia for the first time as Sovereign, and to renew a love for this country and its people which I have cherished for so long,” the King shared.

Following his speech, the King gifted an hourglass to Parliament, which will be used to time divisions (votes) in the House during Parliamentary proceedings.

As he arrived at his second engagement of the day, King Charles was photographed waving to the thick crowds that had gathered outside NSW Parliament hoping to catch a glimpse of him.

Despite not initially being a planned engagement where Their Majesties would be meeting the public, the royal couple decided last minute that they would like to meet with as many fans as possible – sending their security into overdrive!

This was the royal couple’s first engagement where members of the public had a chance to meet them. Many brought flags, flowers, and cards.

A select handful of locals were invited inside the church to attend the religious service with the couple.

The service was officiated by the Archbishop of Sydney, The Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel, who met them at the church entrance alongside The Bishop of North Sydney, The Right Reverend Chris Edwards.

Notably, Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of NSW, and Mr Dennis Wilson were also in attendance.

King Charles and Queen Camilla were welcomed to the church by children from the local Sunday school.

King Charles and Queen Camilla started the second day of official engagements with a visit to St Thomas’ Anglican Church in North Sydney.

Despite a whirlwind 24 hours of international travel, the King and Queen were in good spirits as they posed for this photo taken on the harbourside lawns of Admiralty House where they are residing during their five-night visit to Australia.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was at the airport to welcome Their Majesties along with his fiancée Jodie Haydon.

King Charles and Queen Camilla began their tour of Australia on Friday, October 18 when they arrived at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport Sydney at 8:30 pm local time.

They were greeted by an official greeting party which included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Governor General Sam Mostyn AC, and the NSW Premier Chris Minns.

As they flew into Sydney, the royals were greeted with a special photo montage of themselves, projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House.

Buckingham Palace said shortly after that the King and Queen were “deeply touched” by the display, and described it as a “wonderful gesture” by the Australian public.