Prince Charles and Princess Diana preparing to board an ACTION bus in 1985. Photo: Libraries ACT.
King Charles III is preparing for his first visit to Canberra as monarch in October, but he’s far from a stranger.
Buckingham Palace is yet to reveal the exact itinerary of the visit, except to say His Majesty and Her Majesty Queen Consort Camilla will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, followed by a tour of the ACT and parts of NSW.
Charles has visited Australia on 14 previous occasions and Canberra during 10 of those, first as a single prince, then with Princess Diana Spencer, and most recently with Duchess of Wales Camilla Parker-Bowles by his side.
Here are the highlights, pulled together with help from the ACT Heritage Library and the Territory Records department.
The first visit
The King spent two terms of his childhood education at the Timbertop School in regional Victoria as a 17-year-old in 1966. But for three days before, he was sailing on Lake Burley Griffin and being introduced to his first kangaroos.
“There was no royal welcome, wild cheering or Australian sunshine for Prince Charles, heir to the throne, when he arrived at Fairbairn RAAF Base yesterday morning for a three-day visit,” The Canberra Times reported on 31 January 1966.
“Instead, drizzling rain, wind, and a crowd of about 200, heavily laced with English migrants, greeted him.”
A few days later, the newspaper said the Prince’s desire to see a kangaroo “was satisfied” when he saw “a number, along with several other species of Australian fauna”, at the CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research in Gungahlin.
An attempt to buy a Cootamundra sheep station
Prince Charles returned to Canberra as an adult in early October 1974, and the visitor’s book inside the St John’s Anglican Church in Reid still bears his signature from when he attended the Sunday worship service and read a portion from the Gospel of Luke.
But he was here for other reasons, too.
After Canberra, he left so entranced by a few days at the Yammatree Station near Cootamundra that he met with then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Governor-General Sir John Kerr to explore buying it.
Documents released in 2020 reveal the Queen ultimately judged it a bad look to spend public money during the middle of a recession and said no. She also ruled out the other possibility of Charles becoming Australia’s next governor-general until he married.
A screenshot of the letter from the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, to Sir John Kerr regarding Prince Charles’s purchase of Yammatree Station. Photo: Screenshot, National Archives of Australia (NAA: AA1984/609).
“I’ve seen in the papers that people say that the reason for me being here this time is (a) to look for a property and (b) to discuss becoming governor-general,” the Prince said in an interview during his visit.
“It’s obviously too soon to, you know, consider [becoming a governor-general] really. I mean, I’m still in the Navy and everything else, but I dare say if there was a, you know, a particular desire for it, I’d be only too delighted to consider it, certainly.”
Other pre-Diana visits
Charles returned to Canberra for several stints in November 1977, March 1979 and April 1981.
During this time, he opened an art exhibition at the Canberra Theatre (and bought a painting of polo being played at Broken Hill), unveiled a plaque at Legacy House in Civic, inaugurated Googong Dam, opened the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial, enjoyed a tour of Garema Place and Civic, and enjoyed a lunch at the Canberra Rex Hotel.
Princess Diana meeting crowds in Canberra in 1983. Photo: National Archives of Australia.
Princess Diana woos the crowds
The royal couple arrived in Canberra for a whirlwind three-day tour in March 1983, with the young Prince William in tow. It was meant to be longer but was cut short to allow them to pay respects to victims of bushfires in South Australia and Victoria.
The itinerary began with a look at the early construction of the new Parliament House, followed the next day by a visit to the Woden Special School in Deakin, and then on to officially open the Erindale Library and finally lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial.
The school gifted the Prince and Princess with an embroidered wall hanging, taken from a drawing by 13-year-old student Teddy Bochenck.
Dressed to impress. Photo: 1985, National Archives of Australia.
At Erindale Library, The Canberra Times recorded “thousands of flag-waving school children lined the paths and windows of the Erindale Centre to catch a glimpse” of the royal couple.
“A rousing cheer rang out as the Princess stepped from the car and began her 100-metre walk up a curving path to the school’s doors … The walk took almost 20 minutes as the couple stopped to shake hands and talk to the children, some of whom had been waiting two hours.”
An 18-year-old student of Erindale College, Denise Mann, said of the couple, “She’s beautiful, and he’s not too bad either”.
They were also treated to a “rousing chorus” of ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’, which Prince Charles reportedly described as “very good”.
Princess Diana’s last visit
The couple returned to Canberra for two days in early November 1985 as part of celebrations for Victoria’s 150th anniversary.
There was another update on the construction of new Parliament House, but the real highlight – for Canberrans, at least – was the ride to the Australian National Botanic Gardens on board an ACTION bus.
Also on this trip, Diana met the founder of Barnardo Australia at the Barnardo House in Downer, while Charles went to Questacon.
Their plane took off from Canberra at 9:10 am on Thursday, 8 November, and that was the last we were to see of Princess Diana. She died on 31 August 1997 due to injuries sustained when her driver accidentally crashed in Paris while evading paparazzi.
Yass glass artist Peter Crisp hand delivers a piece commissioned by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. Photo: File.
Charles returns
Twenty years passed before Prince Charles returned to Canberra in March 2005. He laid another wreath at the Australian War Memorial before flying to Gunning to visit a beef and native seed property.
Property owner John Weatherstone told ABC News at the time he was “extremely surprised” his farm was chosen for the royal visit.
“To have the heir apparent to the British throne come to your farm is a huge honour. Yeah, we’re excited about it,” he said.
Canberra meets Camilla
The Duchess of Cornwall accompanied the Prince on a tour of Australia for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in November 2012 and joined then Prime Minister Julia Gillard to officially name the Queen Elizabeth Terrace by Lake Burley Griffin.
Shortly after the ceremony, a Canberra woman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of the Queen handed Charles a packet of Tim Tams with the message, “Happy birthday for next week”.
The Prince replied with, “You’re very kind” and “What I’ve discovered is that you have to dunk them”.
The lady, Alyson Richards, told media later, “I think he’s a real Aussie now!”
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall sign the National Arboretum visitor’s book in 2015, overseen by Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Photo: File.
Camilla was also reportedly amazed by the sheer number of kangaroos living on the grounds of Government House.
The couple’s most recent visit was in November 2015, when Camilla went truffle hunting at Canberra’s first truffle farm, French Black Truffles, Charles toured the National Museum of Australia, and together, they planted a tree at the National Arboretum and attended Remembrance Day commemorations at the Australian War Memorial.
What do you remember of Prince Charles’ visits?
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