Charles and Camilla’s Visit to Australia, Day One

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have departed New Zealand and landed in Australia today for the second leg of their royal tour. They were welcomed at RAAF Base Edinburgh just north of Adelaide in the early afternoon by an official party headed by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, before heading up to the Barossa Valley.

In Tanunda, thousands lined the main street to catch a glimpse of Charles and Camilla as they did a quick walk-about ahead of their visit to the region’s oldest winery, Seppeltsfield Estate. There they were given a tour of the winery, tasted some of the wines from the centennial cellar (one each from their birth years), and the Duchess pulled a knife on her husband, jokingly insisting that he “behaves himself”. Charles took it in his stride, pulling a concerned face and saying to his wife, “Now listen here.”

The couple then made their way back to Adelaide, the capital of South Australia named after Queen Adelaide, consort of King William IV, for separate engagements. Accompanied by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, Prince Charles visited the site of a Prince’s Terraces project in Bowden, which will create a green living development in conjunction with Defence Housing Australia. He turned the first sod on the development, and was shown models of what it will look like once complete.

Camilla meanwhile was at Government House where she participated in a domestic violence conference alongside Australian of the Year Rosie Batty and the Governor of South Australia’s wife, Lan Le. “It’s a difficult thing to report…A lot of people feel shame so they sit on it for years. It’s about getting people to feel that it’s alright to go to the police,” the Duchess said of the stigma surrounding domestic violence.

During her stop at Government House, Camilla was also shown a collection opals from the South Australian Museum Opal Exhibition.

The Prince and the Duchess flew to Sydney this evening, before they travel to Canberra where they will spend Remembrance Day tomorrow.

Filed under The United Kingdom
Tagged Australia, Environment, Official Visit, The Duchess of Cornwall, The Prince of Wales.