By Lewis Jackson
CANBERRA (Reuters) -King Charles and Queen Camilla flew to Australia’s capital Canberra on Monday where crowds gathered for their first visit to the city in almost a decade.
Charles’ 16th official visit to Australia, where he attended school for six months as a teenager in 1966, is also his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer in February.
The royal couple will first visit the Australian War Memorial and place a floral tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier before meeting members of the public. They last visited the memorial in 2015.
Hundreds waited in the bright sun for the royals, including Georgia Bray, who said she had come despite being a republican.
“I’m a republican but today I’m a monarchist … I’m Australian and Australians are polite,” she said.
“We’ll give our King and Queen a good welcome.”
Their itinerary also includes parliament, where they will meet senior ministers, members of the judiciary and military, as well as the National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory.
At the lab, Charles, a long-time environmentalist, will see a demonstration of the “pyroton,” a special wind tunnel designed to mimic the effects of the deadly bush fires common to Australia.
The monarchs began their trip in Sydney. On Sunday, hundreds of well-wishers gathered outside St Thomas’ Anglican Church to greet the royal couple after they attended a service.
The royal couple continue their visit to Australia in Sydney on Tuesday, before heading to Samoa for a meeting of countries in the British Commonwealth.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Canberra, writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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