By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) -The sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House were illuminated on Friday night with a photographic tribute to welcome King Charles and Queen Camilla, as they arrived in Australia on the first visit by a reigning British monarch in 13 years.
The royal couple arrived in Sydney on a Royal Australian Air Force plane on Friday evening, and were greeted on the tarmac by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Australia’s Governor-General Sam Mostyn and the premier of New South Wales state Chris Minns.
King Charles carried an umbrella and chatted with the welcoming party, as rain cleared for the royals’ arrival.
The couple later met with Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon at Admiralty House, a historic government foreshore residence overlooking Sydney Harbour and the opera house, where they will stay.
“Their Majesties have a deep regard for Australia, and this visit will be an opportunity to showcase the very best of our modern and dynamic nation,” Albanese wrote on social media platform X, posting a photograph from Admiralty House.
Sydney’s Opera House displayed a photographic montage of King Charles’s previous visits to Australia, where he attended school for six months as a teenager, and has returned more than a dozen times.
King Charles is making his inaugural visit to an overseas realm as sovereign, his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer.
Their trip will be shorter in time and the distance covered than typical royal tours, reflecting the care the king’s medical team is taking with his health in light of his ongoing treatment.
The couple are visiting Sydney and Canberra over six days, before travelling to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.
The official programme begins on Sunday in Sydney, before travelling to Canberra on Monday where the King and Queen will visit the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House. The public will have an opportunity to meet the royal couple at the Opera House forecourt in Sydney on Tuesday.
Earlier, the royal couple wrote on social media platform X, “We are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special.”
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Jan Harvey and Kim Coghill)
