'A moment to prove himself': What's at stake for King Charles as he visits Australia

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When King Charles and Queen Camilla are in Australia over the next few days, they will meet people who devote their time to interests the royals have also long shared.

But the visit that began Friday carries with it added significance, particularly because it's the King's first trip to a Commonwealth realm since he became monarch two years ago, and his first major overseas trip since he was diagnosed with cancer early this year.

"He is, of course, following in the huge footsteps of his mother, Queen Elizabeth. And I think not just in Australia but elsewhere around the Commonwealth, that's a huge challenge," said Cindy McCreery, an associate professor of history at the University of Sydney, in an interview over Zoom this week.

"In the last royal visit [to Australia] in 2011 with Queen Elizabeth … she didn't have anything to prove. She was of course a very well-established, well-respected monarch and didn't really need to worry what people thought.

"I think [with] Charles, there's a much greater sense [that] this is a moment to prove himself in Australia and on the world stage and so there's a lot more uncertainty."

At one point, there had been speculation Charles's first visit as King to a Commonwealth realm would bring him to Canada. Plans for a visit here last spring were put on hold after he was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer.

This trip Down Under, however, had long been marked in his calendar, combining time in Australia with attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting next week in the Pacific island country of Samoa. 

"These biannual meetings, he wants to be a part of that," said David Johnson, a political science professor at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia. "To him and to the late Queen, the Commonwealth is vitally important."

Plans to visit New Zealand on this trip were reportedly shelved, and the Australian visit is limited to the Sydney and Canberra areas, an apparent effort to take into account Charles's health and avoid any additional strain in covering the country's vast geography. His treatment for cancer has been paused for the trip.

"I'm sure it's a chance for him and Buckingham Palace to hopefully show that he's well," said Johnson.

"I think the deep-down issue is just, can he pull off a royal tour in Australia?"

Charles, 75, is no stranger to the country — it's his 17th visit, with his first coming as a teenager, when he spent time at a boarding school.

"He's made enough subsequent visits at different stages of his life that I think many Australians, particularly older Australians, feel that they know him and have a generally positive impression," said McCreery.

Among younger generations, however, feelings may differ.

"I think that younger members of the Royal Family, such as William and Catherine and previously Harry and Meghan, had much more resonance for younger Australians, as they would for younger people around the world," said McCreery.

She expects to see Charles meeting with relatively small groups of people. 

"I actually think that this visit is being very carefully planned around showcasing Charles and Camilla as listening, and particularly listening to ordinary Australians, rather than speaking," said McCreery.

"I think that's a very important part of the opportunity to showcase what I call, or what indeed other people have called, Charles's vision of his reign as that of a people's monarch."

The itinerary for him and Camilla includes time separately or together with representatives of Indigenous groups; campaigners and survivors of domestic abuse; charities around literacy; firefighters; and people who work with climate change and trying to help prevent the spread of bushfires, a significant issue in Australia.

Other engagements on the royal itinerary include meeting children at a library and attending a community barbecue with representatives from diverse cultural groups.

"It's very much about listening and meeting different people in Australia, rather than showcasing as might have happened when Queen Elizabeth visited — you know, 'here is the monarch, he's going to speak to us or … everyone looking … bow down to them.' And I think that's a very important part of how he's hoping to come across in Australia."

Much media coverage inside and outside Australia ahead of the visit has focused on politics — several state premiers won't be meeting him — and the issue of republicanism.

"I think both … the Australian republican movement and the Australian Monarchy League are understandably using the royal visit as an opportunity to put forward their case for why on the one hand we should become a republic, or on the other, why we should remain a constitutional realm, a constitutional monarchy," said McCreary.

How much other Australians are thinking about republicanism right now is less obvious.

"If you look at the polls … it's very unclear that a majority of Australians definitively want a republic at this stage," McCreery said.

"I think what's more accurate is that Australians … probably think in the long run it will happen, but it's not a matter of immediate urgency."

McCreery expects Australians will go out and see Charles and Camilla, although she would "argue that for some of them, it's not about seeing their head of state or monarch and it's more about a general interest in celebrity culture and in seeing people visiting Australia who we don't often see."

And in that context, how will the visit compare to those of other celebrities?

"Taylor Swift sold out all of our venues," McCreery said. 

"I don't think that we're going to see a Taylor Swift kind of response here. And it will be interesting to think about what that says about how Australians kind of see the monarchy and see the King and Queen….

"I think really the answer will lie in which group of Australians you're talking to, and the demography — what age group, maybe what family background people have — will shape how they understand and see this royal visit."

If the Australian trip goes well, Johnson expects there will be people in Canada wondering if Charles will come here next year.

But Canadian politics may play into the timing of any visit.

"If a federal election is happening sometime next spring or fall, the likelihood is that he won't be coming during that time," said Johnson.

"Maybe 2026 is the best time for Buckingham Palace to be thinking about a royal visit here, because you don't want to be seen to be somehow getting politicized into a Canadian election debate."

From one cancer patient to another

One engagement on King Charles's Australian itinerary will carry a particular poignancy, and continue a focus he's had in recent months.

Charles will meet cancer researchers Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer, who have been honoured as Australians of the Year for their work on melanoma, a cancer of the skin.

The researchers, McCreery said, have become well-known in Australia because of their work "on applying immunotherapy to melanoma with great success."

Scolyer is using that treatment for his own brain cancer.

"Melanoma is of course a huge issue in Australia as elsewhere," said McCreery.

"The King, who is also managing his own cancer, meeting researchers of cancer, one of whom is also a cancer patient … is a particularly kind of poignant [moment], but also … a really probably useful platform to encourage public awareness as well as support and research."

Charles's first engagement when he returned to public duties after his diagnosis was to visit a cancer treatment centre in London.

Off to Malta … then Chad

Also on the royal visit front, the busy schedule that has seen the public profile of Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, on the rise took her to the Mediterranean and Africa in recent days.

A four-day trip to the Mediterranean island of Malta, with her husband, Prince Edward, marked the 60th anniversary of its independence, and took the couple to a country that held a special place in the heart of Edward's late mother, Queen Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, lived in Malta while he served with the Royal Navy.

"We know that she had an incredibly happy time out in Malta in the early days of her marriage," said Judith Rowbotham, a social and cultural scholar and visiting research professor at the University of Plymouth in southwestern England, in an interview.

A few days later, Sophie was in Chad, where she met refugees from the civil war in neighbouring Sudan. She was, the BBC reported, "moved to tears by the harrowing testimonies" she heard from women of the sexual exploitation they had endured.

"People are having to exchange food and water for sex, for rape. That is violence that is being enacted through conflict. It is being used as a bargaining tool," Sophie said, according to the BBC.

Sophie is the first member of the Royal Family to make an official visit to Chad.

"The Duchess of Edinburgh visited Chad to witness firsthand the impact of the conflict in Sudan, particularly on women and girls, and to help draw attention to the deteriorating situation which is impacting Chad and the wider region," Buckingham Palace said.

The visit, like other official trips that royals undertake, including Charles to Australia, was made at the request of the U.K. Foreign Office. Plans would have been made many months in advance.

"These are state visits which are [the] legacy of a previous government and its agenda, and the present government has very largely just let them go ahead without any substantial input because they have not developed any particular policies relevant to them," said Rowbotham.

Catherine's 'surprise' visit

A royal visit on a smaller scale and closer to home saw Catherine, Princess of Wales, carry out her first official public engagement since finishing her chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

Catherine and her husband, Prince William, visited the English seaside town of Southport to meet with emergency workers and family members of three children killed in a knife attack at a dance class nearly three months ago.

"Her visit to Southport showed her engaging with the families who were bereaved, who were shocked and traumatized," said Rowbotham.

"And in a sense, what it was about was returning the focus to the people actually directly and most affected by a very tragic incident."

In the British media, the focus has been mainly on the riots that followed the knife attack, Rowbotham said, and the government's strategy toward the riots, which escalated on issues including Islamophobia and racism.

"But that's not how the whole thing started. And I think in choosing to go to Southport, the Prince and Princess of Wales were choosing to try to change the narrative, to return the focus on what happened in Southport to the real heart of the story."

WATCH | Princess of Wales says she has finished chemotherapy:

Princess Kate declares she’s cancer-free in polished, positive video

3 months ago

Duration 2:00

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, has finished her chemotherapy treatment, and will gradually be returning to public life. She shared the update, and reflections on her battle, in a rare, polished and positive video with her family.

Catherine's visit was described as a "surprise" in media reports and is part of a gradual return to work after finishing preventative chemo for an undisclosed form of cancer that was diagnosed early this year.

Rowbotham said the visit was "carefully, strategically planned" by both Catherine and William.

"The Princess of Wales, as the mother of a daughter who is interested in dance, … that would be something that would certainly speak to her and probably explains why she chose to accompany William on that visit."

Royally quotable

"Why else would I be here if I'm not using this role properly to influence and help people where I can?"

— Prince William, in an extract from the ITV documentary Prince William: We Can End Homelessness.

Royal reads 

1. Gov. Gen. Mary Simon's spouse, former CBC journalist Whit Fraser, is criticizing Quebec media for their coverage of Simon's French-language skills during a trip to the province in late September. [CBC]

2. King Charles and his family have failed to reveal their official gifts for the past four years, despite previously promising to publish an annual list. [The Guardian]

3. Queen Camilla has suggested her mother would have received better care today for her osteoporosis condition than she did before her death in 1994. [ITV]

4. It was at a park in south London rather than a fluorescent Super Bowl field, but Prince William has joined the increasing numbers in the U.K. playing American football. [BBC]

5. A veteran broadcaster who was given a personal tour of the Sandringham estate by Prince Philip has revealed that his driving was "slightly mad." [Daily Mail]

6. The photographer Anwar Hussein, who has died aged 85, was integral to transforming the public image of the Royal Family: from aloof and unknowable to something more human. [The Guardian]

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