Royal news live: King Charles sends message to Australia as monarch arrives for first visit since cancer diagnosis

King Charles and Queen Camilla have thanked Australia for their “special welcome” as they kick off their six-day tour of the country.

A post on the official royal family Twitter/X account read: “Thank you for the special welcome, Australia!

“The King and Queen have touched down in Sydney to begin their visit to Australia.

“The visit marks His Majesty’s first visit to a Realm as Sovereign.”

This was accompanied by a picture of the Sydney Opera House, which was lit up with images from previous royal tours for the occasion.

The Australian Republic Movement has condemned the royal tour and likened the king and queen’s presence to that of a visiting musician or artist.

Co-chair Esther Anatolitis said the six-day visit should reinforce the need for the country’s British head of state to be replaced with an Australian.

Royal tours, she said, were “something of a show that comes to town.”

“Unfortunately, it is a reminder that Australia’s head of state isn’t full-time, isn’t Australian. It’s a part-time person based overseas who’s the head of state of numerous places,” Anatolitis told the AP.

The royal tour got off to a triumphant start for Queen Camilla who granted a 12-year-old boy’s wish to meet the royals on arrival in Australia.

Ky, who has severe aplastic anaemia, presented the queen consort with a bouquet after she and King Charles stepped off their plane.

Ky was joined by his sister Charlotte for the meeting, who saved his life with a bone marrow donation.

“I just like their personality as well and what they do with charities is really nice – probably Charles would be my favourite,” he said.

His wish to meet the royals was granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which exists in both the UK and Australia.

King Charles and Queen Camilla’s arrival in Australia has been marked with a spectacular light show on the Sydney Opera House.

It was poignantly lit up for four minutes with pictures from previous royal tours.

The couple are set to spend six days in the country on their first visit as king and queen.

A woman who has been dubbed Australia’s “biggest royal fan” has said that she cannot wait for King Charles’s historic visit.

Jan Hugo, the proud owner of the country’s largest collection of royal memorabilia, said that she loves “everything” about the royal family.

“I think we might try and coordinate a couple of things and see where we might be able to see him,” Ms Hugo told the TODAY programme. “But you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla have officially arrived in Australia for their historic tour – the monarch’s first as king.

The couple landed in Sydney on a Royal Australian Air Force plane, where they were greeted by a warm welcome as they stepped off their plane and shook the hands of officials.

The queen consort was also gifted a bouquet of flowers by a young boy.

Watch live as King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive in Australia on Friday, 18 October, for their first official visit since the coronation.

His Majesty is embarking on his 16th official visit and 17th overall to the country, which is his first trip there as monarch and Queen Camilla’s first in her role as consort.

The royal couple last travelled around the globe to the Commonwealth realm in 2018.

Charles and Camilla will embark on a six-day trip to Canberra and Sydney as part of a historic tour of the South Pacific.

They will later travel to Samoa for a three-day state visit and speak with world leaders in a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which Charles will formally open.

Prince William has praised the work of the Duchy College after a visit to Cornwall, where the heir to the throne met its students on campus.

A statement on the official Kensington Palace Twitter/X account read: “The @DuchyCollege does a brilliant job providing opportunities for young people in rural areas to foster a successful career.

“A great morning in Cornwall spent chatting about the future of farming, getting hands-on with CSI-focused course tasks and meeting students on campus.”

The post was accompanied by footage of William meeting with students to learn more about their studies and ambitions. The college has two campuses in Rosewarne and Stoke Climsland, Cornwall.

King Charles and Queen Camilla have issued an excited joint statement ahead of their historic tour of Australia.

It read: “Ahead of our first visit to Australia as King and Queen, we are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special.

“See you there! – Charles R & Camilla R.”

The statement was accompanied by archive footage from previous royal tours of the country.

King Charles is set to begin his eight-day tour of Australia and Samoa today.

The monarch’s first visit to Australia since taking the throne has been compared to the late Queen Elizabeth II’s historic 1954 tour of the country.

Dr George Gross, royal historian and visiting research fellow at King’s College London, said: “This is a tour of significant firsts. Although King Charles III has travelled to Australia many times, this will be his first visit there as sovereign and the first tour to the country by a reigning monarch since 2011.

“It will also be the King’s first official overseas tour since his cancer diagnosis, his first to a Commonwealth realm and, while visiting Samoa, he will lead the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of his reign.

“It is notable too that he is visiting Australia in the year after his coronation, as this echoes the 1954 tour by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II following her coronation in 1953.”

The visit will be Charles’s 17th visit to Australia in his lifetime.