By Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY (Reuters) – King Charles and Queen Camilla will fly to Australia’s capital Canberra on Monday where crowds are expected to gather for their first visit to the city in almost a decade.
Charles’ 16th official visit to Australia, where he attended school for six months as a teenager in 1966, is also his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer in February.
The monarchs began their trip in Sydney. On Sunday, hundreds of well-wishers gathered outside St Thomas’ Anglican Church to greet the royal couple after they attended a service.
Landing in Canberra before noon, the royal couple will first visit the Australian War Memorial and place a floral tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier before meeting members of the public. They last visited the memorial in 2015.
Their itinerary also includes parliament, where they will meet senior ministers, members of the judiciary and military, as well as the National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory.
At the lab, Charles, a long-time environmentalist, will see a demonstration of the “pyroton,” a special wind tunnel designed to mimic the effects of the deadly bush fires common to Australia.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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