'As long as he draws breath, he will have Australia in his heart': Veteran royal photographer on the King's 'massively successful' visit
With a wave at the top of the stairs as they boarded the Royal Australian Airforce plane on Wednesday, King Charles and Queen Camilla concluded their "massively" successful tour of Australia.
The five-day visit, which had engagements scheduled across just three days, was the King and Queen's first to Australia since the coronation and the first by the King to a Commonwealth realm, making the tour one for the history books.
Veteran royal photographer Arthur Edwards was with the royal couple in Australia and was there when the King and Queen stepped onto the plane for the next leg on their Pacific tour: Samoa.
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King Charles and Queen Camilla prepare to depart Australia on what has been a successful royal visit. Getty
Edwards told 9honey from the tarmac that Australians should appreciate the significance of the tour from a historical point of view.
"Well, it's first time a King has come to Australia, never before," he said.
"George VI was coming, but he was too ill, so that was that was kind of momentous, quite historical ... but this is better."
Charles' mother, the late Elizabeth II, became the first reigning Queen to step foot on Australian soil on on February 3, 1954.
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Originally, her father King George VI was due to make the journey in 1949 with his wife and Princess Margaret, taking in many of the country's smaller towns and cities. Events were planned and itineraries created.
But the King was soon deemed too ill and plans were changed for his heir, then Princess Elizabeth, to come instead. That tour began in early 1952 in Kenya.
On February 1952, they were informed that the King had died. Now Queen Elizabeth, it would take nearly two years before Her late Majesty finally made it to Australia, making history in the process.
And now Charles III has cemented his own place in Australia's long relationship with the British royal family, touching down in Sydney on October 18.
King Charles moments before he boarded the RAAF plane at Sydney airport on Wednesday. Getty
Queen Camilla, wearing a Fiona Clare dress, prepares to board the RAAF plane. Getty
He and Queen Camilla carried out a scaled-back, but busy, schedule and managed to attend 30 events crammed into three days of official engagements.
The itinerary was reduced from what royal visits typically are, on account of the King's health and ongoing cancer treatment, which was paused during the tour, and Their Majesties' ages (Charles will be 76 next month, Camilla is 77).
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When asked whether this tour would be looked back upon as being successful, he answered without hesitation.
"Massively, massively," he said.
"I reviewed the papers on Monday in Canberra [and] every newspaper was positive with lots of coverage.
King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday in what Their Majesties' final public event of the royal visit. Getty
"The walkabouts have been superb – I know you don't call them walkabouts anymore – you call them sort of meeting the people, but it was just, it was just brilliant.
"The whole thing was brilliant."
Edwards has been photographing the royal family for 45 years and has covered seven royal weddings, five funerals, eight royal births and two coronations.
READ MORE: Could this really be King Charles' final time in Australia?
New Zealand was part of the King's original tour plans but Buckingham Palace was forced to scrap that leg due to advice from the monarch's doctors.
Edwards, who was in Australia for the 31st time, acknowledged the tour's length had been reduced on account of the King's treatment, but said "it was successful".
"He kept to Australia. He said in that speech at Parliament, 'I love Australia' and I think he showed that this week."
The King's age and health have inevitably led to questions about whether this will be Charles' 17th and final time in Australia.
His late mother was 85 on what would be her final journey Down Under. Elizabeth II's last foreign visit was to Malta in 2015.
Edwards believes the King would return one day, if he can.
King Charles and Queen Camilla turn sausages on the barbecue at Parramatta Park on Tuesday. Getty
"As long as he draws breath, he will have Australia in his heart," he said.
But, could this be the King's final visit?
"We don't know, do we? I hope not," he said.
"When I was here in 2018 [with the late Queen], people said it would have to be the last visit for me. I said, 'I don't know.'
"You never know when you're coming back to Australia."
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