SYDNEY: King Charles was granted five-star rank in each branch of Australia’s armed forces Saturday, a ceremonial gesture to mark the first full day of his landmark tour Down Under. Charles, in addition to being king of realm can now call himself field marshal of Australia’s army, marshal of its airforce and admiral of the fleet. It was not a bad day’s work for the 75-year-old monarch, who spent Saturday recuperating and without public engagements after a marathon flight from London to Sydney.

The monarch — who received the life-changing cancer diagnosis just eight months ago — and Queen Camilla have begun a nine-day visit to Australia and Samoa, the first major foreign tour since being crowned. They landed in Sydney on Friday and were greeted by local dignitaries and posy-bearing children, before a quick private meeting with Australia’s staunchly republican Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his fiancee. “We are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special,” the royal couple said in a social media post ahead of their arrival.

Royal tours to far-flung domains are a vital way of kindling local support for the monarchy, and the political stakes for the royals are high. A recent poll showed about a third of Australians would like to ditch the monarchy, a third would keep it, and a third are ambivalent. Visiting British royals have typically embarked on weeks-long visits to stoke support, hosting grand banquets and parading through streets packed with thrilled, flag-waving subjects. This visit will be a little different. The king’s health has caused much of the usual pomp and ceremony to be scaled back.

A planned stop in New Zealand was cancelled altogether, and he will be in Sydney and Canberra for just six days before attending a Commonwealth summit in Samoa. There are few early morning or late night engagements on his schedule and aside from a community barbecue in Sydney and an event at the city’s famed Opera House, there will be few mass public gatherings. There had been rumors that he may attend a horse race in Sydney on Saturday, but he was not to be seen. When the time came the well-hydrated crowd belted out Australia’s anthem “Advance Australia Fair” rather than the royal anthem “God Save the King”.

‘Old white guy vibes’

It is not just age, jetlag and health worries that the king has to contend with Down Under. Australians, while marginally in favor of the monarchy, are far from the enthusiastic loyalists they were in 2011 when thousands flocked to catch a white-gloved wave from his mother Queen Elizabeth II. “I think most people see him as a good king,” said 62-year-old Sydney solicitor Clare Cory, who like many is “on the fence” about the monarchy’s continued role in Australian life.

“It’s a long time. Most of my ancestors came from England, I think we do owe something there,” she said, before adding that multi-cultural Australia is now more entwined with the Asia-Pacific than a place “on the other side of the world”. Some are less charitable, seeing no reason to retain a king whose accent, formal get-up and customs have little to do with the daily lives of easygoing antipodeans. “He just gives old white guy vibes,” said home school teacher Maree Parker. “We don’t need a king and queen, we can just do our own thing.”

The lucky country

Still, Australia is a land of many happy memories for Charles, and he can be sure to find some support. He first visited as a gawky 17-year-old in 1966, when he was shipped away to the secluded alpine Timbertop school in regional Victoria. “While I was here I had the Pommy bits bashed off me,” he would later remark, describing it as “by far the best part” of his education. Bachelor Charles was famously ambushed by a bikini-clad model on a later jaunt to Western Australia, who pecked him on the cheek in an instantly iconic photo of the young prince. — AFP