SYDNEY — King Charles and Queen Camilla have received an official welcome at Sydney Airport, at the start of their six-day visit to Australia.

They stepped on to the runway carrying umbrellas as thundery showers faced the royal visitors on their evening arrival.

Australia’s governor-general Sam Mostyn was there for the ceremonial greeting, along with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

It’s the King’s first visit to Australia since he became the country’s head of state in September 2022.

Before being driven away from the airport, the Queen received a posy of flowers from young people.

The King and Queen will be brought to Admiralty House, the governor-general’s residence, for a private meeting with Australia's prime minister.

Official royal engagements will begin on Sunday, giving the King and Queen a day to recover from the long flight.

The programme of events for the King and Queen also looks a bit different from regular royal tours. When they arrive they will have a day to recover before starting engagements. It’s a long journey - they are both in their 70s.

The timetables do not include evening engagements. There are no state dinners, and no trips out late in the day.

This will be the biggest trip by the King since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

His treatment will be suspended while he is in Australia and during the next leg of his trip in Samoa, where he will attend a Commonwealth leaders’ summit.

The last such official arrival by a monarch in Australia was in 2011, when the late Queen Elizabeth II landed in Canberra.

The visit by King Charles will include supporting environmental projects, meeting political and community leaders and a naval review in Sydney Harbour.

The King will also meet two Australian scientists, Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer, who have carried out pioneering research on melanoma, one of the country's most common cancers.

He's been coming to Australia since he was a schoolboy and this will be his 17th visit - but his first as monarch.

A message on the the Royal Family's social media account said: "Ahead of our first visit to Australia as King and Queen, we are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special."

The visit has also re-opened questions about whether Australia should be a republic with an Australian head of state.

Those supporting a republic have been selling T-shirts labelling the royal visit a “farewell tour”. But monarchists say it is “insulting” that none of the six state premiers will attend an official reception for the King in Canberra on Monday.

Ahead of the visit letters between Buckingham Palace and the Australian Republic Movement were revealed, in which palace officials repeated that whether Australia became a republic or remained a constitutional monarchy was a choice for the Australian people. — BBC