For the University of Queensland's Monarchist League, King Charles' visit is seen as a celebrationBottomless drinks, a three-course dinner and an auction with royal memorabilia feature at the sold-out University of Queensland Monarchist League annual ball
The show begins with a rendition of the English national anthem, "God Save the King," billed as an ode to the Crown. When the dinner is over, they begin to bid.
Top of the King's birthday range: a limited-edition, hand-decorated Royal Doulton plate. Rounding out the ticket - artwork of King George V and a signed bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from former Prime Minister, monarchist Tony Abbott.
The 200 ticket holders and their friends say the fact that King Charles is travelling more than 16,000 km across ten time zones to spend eight days touring Australia from October—all while undergoing cancer treatment—highlights his love for the country. They are thankful for it.
Student Eliza Kingston adds: "He’s such a big part of our history and our traditions, it's great we get to celebrate that."
''He's half our Aussie as he is your Pommie,'' Jeremy Bazley volunteers.
And yet, in the land of sky-high house prices, many Australians are ignoring it almost entirely—that is if they bothered even becoming aware—prompting some campaigners to bill it as the royal family's "farewell tour" as a way to try and reboot the decades-old Republican debate.
One the government has parked up —at least for now—while King Charles earlier this week voiced the long-standing palace principle that it should be a “public decision” to kick off.
The botched constitutional referendum on the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died last year, halting any momentum for a further referendum — which is the only way to amend Australia's constitution. Often times the bruising campaign divided a nation, including many of its original inhabitants, who felt themselves to be voiceless.
And it will form a backdrop to the tone of this royal tour, which is spreading its effects over events in Sydney and Canberra as well- In essence, one they have not completed for more than 10 years.
A nation split
It will be King Charles's 17th tour to Australia. In 1966, he spent two terms at Timbertop — the campus of a Victorian boarding school in the mountains — as a teenage prince. It was “far away the best,” he said.
The prince has visited the country 15 times on official tours (pictured with Princess Diana at Uluru) He was last seen on the Gold Coast opening the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
King Charles spent two semesters at Timbertop School in Victoria as a teenagerWell, welcome him to King-hood! The numbers clearly show that the country is divided.
A Roy Morgan Research snapshot survey the following week, after his coronation as king-in-waiting was shuffled off down a long corridor so dark that even Barnaby Joyce lost interest in total darkness and went home early, revealed 60% of Australians wished to keep it this way forever.
However, in a poll by YouGov last year, the proportion fell to 35%, but those supporting becoming a Republic at or before the end of the reign gained no more than one-third (32%).
A further 12% said that should only occur if and when the King were to pass away, while a sizeable 21% just did not know.
More than a third of those surveyed said the monarchy was beneficial to Britain, while 20% saw it as detrimental and fully38%did not care one way or another.
Charlotte Greatrex (c) and Gus Van Aanholt (left) say younger generations don't have as much of a connection with the monarchyAt the Royal Hotel Darlington pub, just across from The University of Sydney, students who had finished their studies only to head out for a pint after work were unaware they'd be receiving a visit from Hawaiian royalty.
Nineteen-year-old Charlotte Greatrex says: "To be honest, not that many people would know they existed or care." We all get very swept up in uni or whatever's going on in our own lives that it doesn't seem to affect us the way a natural disaster would.
Her friend Gus Van Aanholt adds: “I think for me, older generations like my parents and grandparents would have much more of a stronger connection to the monarchy.”
Polling has previously suggested a generational divide in how Australians view the monarchy, with older citizens far more likely to be supporters.
The Australian Republic Movement (ARM) is hoping to use the King's visit as a springboard for what it believes is an erosion in support of monarchy. In a self-deprecating media push this week, the Royalist League released an advert mocking King Charles and Queen Camilla as aging rock stars giving their final concert before encouraging people to “wave goodbye to royal reign.
The ARM wants a question put to the people for them to have their say on an issue that already suffered a resounding defeat in 1999 when the Australian public was given its first and last opportunity so far, under legislation rushed by John Howard.
Nathan Hansford, co-chair of that organisation says "we've been independent for a long time now but that last little step of independence for us is splitting away from the monarchy".
"Whatever you want to throw on the British royal family in past times, it's actually a story of us progressing as a nation," he said.
The King and Queen will arrive in Sydney on Friday, and they will be welcomed by one of Australia's leading Republicans…..
He has long made it clear that he wants his country to be independent of monarchy. He has even appointed an assistant minister for the republic.
However, a cabinet reshuffle in recent weeks and the abolition of the Republican portfolio have revealed that plans for an election on it had been dumped.
As is the case with pretty much anyone else in the world, Australians are finding that prices of everyday essentials continue to push upwards, and it's hard to win a referendum when people see only another expensive distraction.
Albanese has determined that a republican vote is not an imperative for the punters just yet.
In return, many Indigenous people believe the referendum result last year showed how much work Australia still needs to do in terms of reconciling with its colonial history before it will be able to discuss its future.
Allira Davis, a young Cobble Cobble woman and co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue, says that we cannot have another referendum without dealing with First Nations issues … We still have people experiencing intergenerational trauma, so getting the country right is really important.
Overall, as a black woman with in-laws who lived through apartheid (her "truth", not Meghan's), she thinks the US has become significantly more diverse than it was when 17-year-old King Charles landed on their shore.
“Because we're not white Australia any more, we are a brown Australia.
"We are people with multicultural backgrounds and different rules of life from every nation under the sun, and it would be interesting to have a brown head of state, but before we do that, pay our first nations' rights,
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