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Pinned post from 1.08pm on Oct 21, 2024
Go to latestWatch live: the King and Queen’s Canberra tour
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Royal visit Australia LIVE updates: King Charles, Queen Camilla to visit Australian War Memorial, Parliament House in Canberra
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Wrap of the day
By Olivia Ireland
That’s all of our coverage for today on the visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla to Canberra, here are the key moments from today:
- The King and Queen made their way from Sydney to Canberra and made their way to the Australian War Memorial where King Charles met Hephner the support alpaca in the crowd.
- Several protesters were arrested outside the Australian War Memorial for refusing to comply with police direction. Most were not charged except a 21-year-old woman who faced the ACT Magistrates Court in the afternoon.
- Senator Lidia Thorpe yelled at King Charles and Queen Camilla during the ceremony at Parliament House, yelling after the King’s speech: “it’s not your last, you’re not my King, you’re not our kind”. Later, Thorpe rushed up to the King and yelled again. Thorpe also got into a scuffle with a police officer outside the Australian War Memorial
- Members of the public greeted the royal with joy and excitement, as crowds gathered outside every event.
- The most noticeable member of the crowd was Hephner the alpaca who was dressed in a gold crown and a bow tie.
- Their Majesties’ schedule was jam packed with a visit to the war memorial, a ceremony at Parliament House, a meeting at Government House and a visit to the CSIRO an Australian National Botanic gardens.
Royal rainforest walk
By Katina Curtis
The King walked down a path of rocky stairs into the rainforest gully with Botanic Gardens head Dr Rebecca Pirzl. He held tightly to the rail and, at the bottom of the steep stairs, paused to touch a large tree and looked up into its canopy.
As the Queen made her way down the steps cautiously in her heels, the King spotted the waiting media and said, “What are you all doing standing there?”
He then told Dr Pirzl, “It’s extraordinary” while looking down the gully which features plants from the nation’s rainforests from Tasmania to Queensland.
The King and Queen walked along the lower boardwalk in the gully, Charles initially striding off quickly before Camilla called to him to slow down.
They paused for photos before making their way up more rocky steps to the tree planting location.
A different, historical take on Aboriginal protest to the royal family at parliament house
By Tony Wright
Lydia Thorpe is far from the first Aboriginal person to protest to a member of the royal family at Australia’s parliament house about the treatment of First Nations people.
That honour goes to an old Wiradjuri man named Jimmy Clements and his fellow elder John Noble, who trekked to Canberra across the mountains in 1927 to attend, without an invitation, the opening of Canberra’s first parliament house.
Theirs was a silent protest.
Yet when police tried to send them away, many citizens attending the event loudly demanded that the two men be allowed to stay.
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‘I love the royals’: Protest aside, royal couple hit it off with guests in Parliament
By David Crowe
The protest by Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe made headlines for disrupting the reception for the royal couple in Parliament House, but the event continued smoothly once the Victorian senator was escorted out of the Great Hall.
Jess Fox, the kayaker who has won six medals at four Olympic Games, spoke to the King about her first games in London in 2012.
“He was very lovely, and I welcomed him back to Australia,” she said after the event.
Swimmer Ariarne Titmus spoke to Queen Camilla, who told her she had watched the Australian champion win gold at the Paris Olympics.
Disaster recovery organisation meets with Queen Camilla
By Katina Curtis
Earlier, Queen Camilla met the founder and beneficiaries of a charity platform that is one of her patronages.
GIVIT was founded in 2009 by Juliette Wright to offer an online platform that connects donors wishing to give money, time or goods with the charities that need them.
It has helped coordinate disaster recovery efforts including for the 2011 Queensland floods, 2020 Black Summer bushfires and 2021 NSW floods.
Queen Camilla has been a patron of GIVIT since 2020 and also a practical supporter – she donated towards school uniforms and supplies for children in bushfire-affected areas during Black Summer.
The Queen met Wright and GIVIT chief executive Chris Staines along with some staff and volunteers.
‘I’ve heard of it’: King asked if he has heard of AFL
By Ben Westcott
King Charles was led on a detailed tour of the Banksia Gardens at Canberra’s National Botanic Gardens by Beverly Ardler and Kain Ardler from the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community, as well as Dr Rebecca Pirzl.
Wearing dark glasses in the hot Australian sun, the King moved slowly through the display of Australian plants, asking questions and pointing out particularly interesting examples.
The Ardlers explained about the significance of banksia species to their community and how bushfires affect local ecosystems.
The botanic gardens display is the largest collection of Australian plants in the world.
The King was met at the entrance to the Banksia Gardens by Australian mining mandate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, with whom he spoke at length.
On his way out, he was met by students from Ainslie School. Leo Turner, 12, asked the King if he’d heard of AFL.
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Queen Camilla invited to join children making seed pods
By Katina Curtis
At the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and branch head Dr Rebecca Pirzl greeted King Charles.
The gardens display the largest collection of Australian plants in the world.
The Queen spoke with 10 children, five from Ainslie Primary and five from Margaret Hendry school, who were doing activities with Australian native seeds.
Finn Hopkins-Weiss,12, explained, “The fire opens the seed pods and lets all the seeds out.”
Plibersek added: “That’s why we try to manage the fires so they’re not too extreme because the plants need it for regeneration.“
The Margaret Hendry students invited the Queen to join them in making seed pods that could be dispersed by the wind, but she declined, saying, “It would probably stick my fingers together.”
King Charles tours CSIRO’s lab, watches bushfire demonstration
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His Majesty toured the CSIRO’s National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory, where he viewed a “Pyrotron” demonstration.
The seven-minute demonstration replicated a bushfire in a 29-metre long combustion wind tunnel.
The experiment is used to better understand bushfire behaviour and effective methods to suppress it, senior research scientist Matt Plucinski said.
The climate conscious King was invited to start the experiment as he met with researchers and CSIRO head Doug Hilton, receiving a briefing about quickly the fires could spread.
The eucalyptus smoke was “the smell of science”, Dr Hilton joked with the King.
Queen Camilla discusses family and domestic violence
By Olivia Ireland
Earlier at the Governor-General’s house, Queen Camilla attended discussions on family and domestic violence.
Domestic violence advocate Rosie Batty, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, journalist Jess Hill and academic Anne Summers were some of the people who attended the discussions.
Batty said the Queen very much recognised domestic violence was an important issue to address.
Inman Grant spoke about how technology facilitated abuse, Summers discussed her research and the impacts domestic violence has on women’s employment, while Hill discussed coercive control with the Queen.
“I met her last time when she was here in 2016 for a round table discussion that we had around domestic violence back then and she recognised me and remembered me, and I was able to sit next to her which was a real honour,” Batty told this masthead.
“I told her it was 10 years since my son was murdered and our recognition of family violence is a lot better but change is taking a long time and unfortunately that recognition is putting strain on our crisis response services.”
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Second arrest made at War Memorial, police respond to Lidia Thorpe altercation
By Olivia Ireland
A second request was made outside the Australian War Memorial this morning, as a 21-year-old woman was arrested for failing to comply with a police direction.
About 11.30am, police arrested the 21-year-old and she was conveyed to the ACT watch house where she was charged and she faced the ACT Magistrates Court this afternoon.
Several other arrests were made at the Australian War Memorial, however those people were later released without charge.
Earlier police confirmed a 62-year-old man was arrested however when he as taken to the ACT watch house he signed an undertaking to keep the peace and he was released without charge.
The recorded interaction with Senator Lidia Thorpe was also confirmed by ACT Police, as a spokesperson stated: “This morning, police spoke to a protest group near the Australian War Memorial. The group was directed to move on from the area and they complied with that direction.”
“No arrests were made and police consider the matter finalised.”
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