LONDON – King Charles III, 75 and battling cancer, will travel halfway around the world to Samoa this month to take his seat as head of the Commonwealth and highlight the threat posed by climate change to the Pacific island nation.
He will also return to Australia, the country that played a major role in Charles’ upbringing – giving him the chance to become a normal teenager during the six months he spent at Timbertop School outside Melbourne in the 1960s. The visit is the first time since taking the throne that Charles will visit one of the 14 countries outside the United Kingdom where the monarch is head of state.
The visit, from Friday to October 26, is a watershed moment for Charles, who is slowly returning to public duties after a break following his cancer diagnosis in early February. The decision to undertake such a long journey seems to reflect his tendency to work hard and his desire to put his stamp on the kingship after waiting nearly seventy years to become king.
“He doesn’t just want to be a caretaker king, waiting for his death and William’s appointment,” said Anna Whitelock, a professor of royal history at City University, London, speaking. to Prince William. “He wants to work in the world.”
Charles’ global tour comes as he works to support the monarchy at home and abroad two years after coming to the throne.
It’s a challenge the king will face in Australia, a country with a strong anti-monarchy movement.
Charles and Queen Camilla arrived in Australia with a schedule that included a visit to Parliament House in Canberra, the Australian War Memorial and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial. The King will also meet with professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer to learn about their work on melanoma, one of the most common cancers in Australia, and the Queen’s program will also include joining a discussion on domestic violence.
Charles first visited Australia at the age of 17, where he spent two terms at Timbertop, chopping wood, going on long walks and meeting boys who welcomed him, unlike his classmates at Gordonstoun in Scotland. The future king returned to the UK a more confident, disciplined young man, according to his correspondent, Jonathan Dimbleby.
“Part of this change was in the nature of youth, but part of it was in the opportunity given to him in Australia to find himself free in Gordonstoun, away from his parents, away from the British press, away from oppressive certainties. of royal life,” wrote Dimbleby in 1994.
Charles later visited the country as a young prince and visited again shortly after marrying his first wife, the late Princess Diana.
But this time he returns as king not only of the United Kingdom, but also of Australia. That is not an easy thing.
About 45% of Australians voted to abandon the monarchy in 1999, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party has long sought to hold a second referendum on the issue. But those plans were put on hold after Australians overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to Indigenous people in a referendum last year.
Although many Australians still prefer to be a republic, it is not central to the national conversation these days, says Ian Kemish, a former Australian ambassador. People are very focused on the economy, the rising cost of living and the rise of China.
The king’s visit helps to strengthen relations between Australia and the UK, which recently signed a tripartite security agreement with the United States. The agreement, known as AUKUS, will equip Australia’s navy with nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, while also expanding military cooperation and information sharing in other areas.
“In my view, we have bigger fish to fry here in Australia right now than the question of whether we should continue as part of a constitutional monarchy or become a republic,” Kemish said.
As Australia is very important to Charles, his lifelong passion is nature, and climate change is high on the agenda of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa. The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 56 sovereign nations, many of which have historic ties to the UK.
Charles has built a reputation as an unspoken environmental campaigner, calling on world leaders to work together to curb carbon emissions that cause global warming. She will attend the summit for the first time as head of the Commonwealth, a role first held by her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Island nations like Samoa are at the forefront of climate emergencies, with the United Nations saying they are already feeling the effects of rising sea levels, ocean acidification and more powerful tropical storms.
Charles is “a true eco-warrior” who is respected by people around the world for his stance on climate change, Whitelock said.
“Focusing especially on environmental issues, I think will play to his strengths and show that he actually has a meaningful role to play in the Commonwealth,” he said. “And I think he knows that and he’ll appreciate that.”
Charles’ presence in Samoa could help focus international attention on the threats Pacific island nations face, said Kemish, who previously served as Australia’s ambassador to Papua New Guinea.
“These countries will go under the sea first and where the impact can be seen the most,” said Kemish. “And I think it is important that the attention of the world is brought to this part of the world. So, yes, I think more than a photo opportunity. We certainly hope so.”
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