By Max Aitchison For Daily Mail Australia
11:52 03 Mar 2024, updated 12:20 03 Mar 2024
King Charles is set to come to Australia this year, marking the first visit from a reigning monarch since 2011.
Australia’s head of state last came to the country in 2018 for the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast when he was the Prince of Wales.
Buckingham Palace recently revealed that the King, 75, has a ‘form of cancer’.
The type of cancer has not been revealed but he is undergoing ‘regular treatments’ and has postponed public duties.
The Australian Government will begin engaging States and Territories about a possible Royal Visit later this year once his health has recovered.
‘Australia is preparing for a possible visit from His Majesty The King to Australia later this year,’ Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
‘The King has shown his compassion for Australians affected by recent natural disasters, just as Australians have shown compassion and support for the King following his cancer diagnosis.
‘The King, Queen and members of the Royal Family are always welcome in Australia.’
King Charles has made 15 official visits to Australia. The last three he was accompanied by Queen Camilla, who was the the Duchess of Cornwall.
If it goes ahead, this year’s proposed trip will draw him level with his mother late Queen Elizabeth who visited the country 16 times.
Mr Albanese has long been a republican, telling the Republic Referendum Committee in 1999 that the time had ‘well and truly come’ for Australia to ditch the monarchy and stand on its own two feet.
‘It is very important that we are able to move forward,’ he told the parliament.
‘Young people in this country simply cannot identify with Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles being our head of state.’
It was a longstanding policy of Mr Albanese’s to hold a referendum on whether Australia should become a republic.
But the resounding loss of the Voice referendum last October has put those plans on ice for the foreseeable future.
The King, for his part, has long had a love affair with Australia.
In 1966, he spent two terms at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, which he later described as the most enjoyable of his whole education.
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