In October 2024, King Charles and Queen Camilla embarked upon a short royal tour of Australia and Samoa. According to reports, the royal couple spent significantly less money on the international trip when compared with the late Queen Elizabeth II's Australia visits.
As for how Charles and Camilla managed to save so much money, their decision to fly commercial for most of the trip definitely helped, via People. As reported by the outlet (and The Telegraph), King Charles and Queen Camilla's royal tour of Australia and Samoa cost a total of $372,797, or approximately $62,000 per day. This figure included everything necessary for the royal tour, from travel costs and accommodation, to the couple's meals, events they attended, and general hospitality.
Conversely, both of Queen Elizabeth's most recent trips to Australia cost considerably more than her son's visit. As reported by The Telegraph and People, the late Queen's 2006 visit, which lasted a total of five days, cost a whopping $899,701. When the former monarch returned to Australia in 2011, for an 11-day visit incorporating stops in Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth, the trip cost a jaw-dropping $1.6 million.
Despite costing a lot less money, Charles and Camilla's royal tour was definitely eventful. The Australian public went wild during The King and Queen's visit, in spite of republican sentiments putting a stop to some meetings with the royals.
During a visit to the Australian Parliament in Canberra on October 21, 2024, Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe interrupted King Charles and shared her dismay at his presence. "You are not our king," she told him, via The New York Times. "Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us."
Thorpe referenced past abuses and colonial genocide, and then requested that the United Kingdom enter into a treaty with Australia’s Indigenous population. "Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people," Thorpe shouted at Charles. "You destroyed our land."
As Australia is a constitutional monarchy, Charles is technically King, but has very limited powers within the country.
