A new King will be crowned at Westminster Abbey this Saturday, just as every British monarch has been for 900 years. But does Newcastle care about the long-held tradition?
The Newcastle Herald took to the streets to find out who will be watching the coronation of King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort on Saturday, May 6.
Our survey began with an unpromising start as one gentleman said, "There's a coronation? This is the first I've heard of it".
Opinion was divided in Newcastle. Some enjoy the "pompous" nature of a royal celebration and will be readily watching from afar this weekend.
"For the sake of pomp and ceremony, the Brits do it better than anybody else," one resident, Mary, said. "I like pomp and ceremony."
Geoff Van Den Heuvel recently found a coin in his late mother's collection from the late Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.
"I thought I might as well watch the King's coronation and see what she would have seen back 70 plus years ago," he said. "It will be interesting to see a once-in-a-lifetime event, happening on the other side of the world, that impacts on Australia."
For others, the coronation will be tainted by Princess Diana's absence from an occasion they feel she should have been at.
"I would have loved to have seen Lady Diana [there]. She would have been Queen Diana. We've got to give the Queen Consort now our respects. It's a shame," one woman, Deborah, said.
Many people interviewed, particularly in a younger demographic, did not care or were staunchly against King Charles' lavish coronation.
"It's really outdated," Ella Wood said of both the celebration and the continuation of British monarchy in Australia. "[I don't care about it] at all."
"I don't care too much," interviewee Courtney said. "I do have some respect for our Prime Minister attending but I'm in agreeance with his position that we shouldn't really be following the monarch anymore."
Like Ella, Courtney feels the monarchy is "outdated", but described the Queen Elizabeth II as a "trailblazer for women".
Opinions are also out on whether Australia should remain under the British monarchy.
"There's a lot of factors that I don't fully understand," Jedd Nicholls said. "But democracy is great."
"If there was a vote right now, I don't know what I'd vote, but I'm quite happy with the way we roll along," Mary said. "With how stable the monarchy has been, I'm kind of in favour of them remaining out of site but as our figurehead."
