King Charles caps Australia trip with ‘barbie’ and Opera House bash
75-year-old regent crisscrosses Sydney on his last full day of engagements
Sydney: King Charles III flipped sausages and admired Australian avocados on Tuesday on the final leg of his tour Down Under, a whirlwind jaunt designed to shore up support in one of his biggest realms.
The 75-year-old regent crisscrossed Sydney on his last full day of engagements, touring housing projects in the inner city and a suburban community barbecue before a planned finale at the Opera House.
Lifeguards from Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach watched as the “flexitarian” king - who gives up meat and fish two days each week - turned over sausages on a smoky grill.
“It’s a particular delight to see and smell all the top tucker here today,” he told the crowd, paying tribute to Australia’s much loved “smashed avo” and “cab sav” red wine.
“So thank you, everyone, for coming to join us at this ‘barbie’ today.”
In a makeshift field nearby, the king watched as Australian working dogs competed to round up flocks of sheep.
An Australian pub rock staple, “Working Class Man” by Jimmy Barnes, blared over the speakers as Charles and Queen Camilla arrived.
Charles started his day in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern, the spiritual birthplace of one of Australia’s most significant Indigenous rights movements.
“Thats your accommodation tonight, your majesty,” one of his guides joked with a smile as they strolled past a caravan parked on the campus of an Indigenous learning centre.
It was a warmer welcome than his appearance at Australia’s parliament a day earlier, when an Indigenous senator stunned assembled dignitaries by shouting at the regent to “give us our land back”.
In the afternoon, the king will meet celebrated oncologists Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer as well as cancer patients at the Melanoma Institute Australia.
Thousands of citizens of this sun-baked country get skin cancer every year, prompting Australia’s scientists to pioneer a suite of new treatments.
Charles himself was diagnosed with cancer eight months ago and remains in treatment.
His type of cancer has not been publicly disclosed.
Top gun
Later on Tuesday, Charles and Queen Camilla will embark on what may be the centrepiece of their Australian visit.
The royals will meet members of the public on the Sydney Opera House forecourt before surveying warships gathered in the harbour and witnessing an airforce flyover.
It was at the Opera House in 1983 that the then-prince Charles and a 21-year-old princess Diana greeted thousands of admirers.
It was seemingly a public triumph, but Diana - who stole the show - was later photographed bursting into tears at the event.
Commentators would later wonder if it was one of the first public signs of tumult in their fairytale marriage. The pair would later separate and divorce.
This time around, a flotilla of guided missile destroyers, helicopter frigates, and coastal minehunters has been assembled for the occasion.
And an array of Black Hawk helicopters, Super Hornet, and F-35A fighter jets will scream by overhead.
Savvy cruise boat operators had been selling tickets for the event at US$66 per person.
In time for the event, Charles was awarded a spray of military gongs to mark his arrival in Australia.
The one-time trainee jet pilot who crashed an RAF plane in remote northwest Scotland now holds five-star ranks in each of the Australian service branches.
Charles, in addition to being king of the realm, can now call himself field marshal of Australia’s army, marshal of its airforce and admiral of the fleet.
On Wednesday, the royal couple depart for Samoa, where they will attend a Commonwealth summit.