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By CNN Royal Correspondent Max Foster, Lauren Said-Moorhouse in London and Hilary Whiteman in Brisbane

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The last time Charles and Camilla visited Australia in 2018, local marriage celebrant Lesley Kerl wore a bright red dress and managed to get close enough to the royal couple to strike up a conversation.

Naturally, it was about tea – a subject close to the heart of many British people – as Kerl passed Charles (then prince, now King) a gift of a teapot from people further back in the crowd of flag-waving supporters.

“I got the bug after I saw him that time,” said Kerl, who counts herself as a supporter of the British royals, but not necessarily a diehard monarchist.

Kerl will be in Sydney on Tuesday to try to meet the 75-year-old British sovereign again during his first tour to a Commonwealth realm since acceding the throne.

After Australia, King Charles will head to Samoa to join world leaders at the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), his first as head of the organization.

This is the King’s first long-haul multi-country trip since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year, and his schedule has been lightened over the 11-day trip to provide rest times during a pause in his treatment.

Like any royal tour, there’ll be organized pageantry, but also predictable talk around dinner tables, on television and online about when Australia might cut ties with the House of Windsor.

The consensus seems to be that it won’t happen anytime soon – not least because of Australia’s poor record on passing referendums that are required for any change to the country’s constitution.

For the government, the defeat of the most recent referendum last October – not on a republic but to enshrine an Indigenous advisory group in the constitution – was a painful lesson in the expense of holding such a vote and the damage it can do in a country with sharply divergent views.

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The sails of Sydney’s famed opera house were lit up on Friday for the royal couple’s arrival, but some of the pre-trip conversation has been less than welcoming.

Republicans have rebranded the visit as the “the farewell Oz tour,” selling merchandise including T-shirts featuring the faces of the leading royals as if they were members of a rock band on the verge of breaking up.

“We’d love to wave goodbye to royal reign,” Nathan Hansford, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement told Reuters.

For Bev McArthur, a member of the Victorian state parliament, such sentiments are “disrespectful.”

“This man is having cancer treatment. He seems to have put that on hold to come out to Australia, as part of the Commonwealth,” McArthur told CNN.

She’s equally disappointed with the response of state premiers who reportedly declined invitations to meet the King and Queen at a royal reception due to diary clashes.

“I think they’re just unable to take the republican hats off their heads,” said McArthur. “The least we can do is have our leaders pay the respect that he deserves.”

The monarch’s arrival comes around one year to the day after the failed Voice referendum, which dealt a crushing blow to many of Australia’s minority Indigenous population.

It would have enshrined an Indigenous advisory body in the constitution to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a greater say in policies relating to them.

Instead, it was voted down – and to many, the King’s arrival is another painful reminder of the dispossession, slaughter and attempted erasure of their people.

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For others, the trip is an irrelevant distraction from a cost-of-living crisis, as mortgage-holders struggle to find extra cash to finance loans inflated by high interest rates.

In a week where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was reported to have bought a 4.3 million Australian dollar ($2.9 million) clifftop beach house, talk has also turned to the lack of housing affordability.

For the average Australian, lauding a visiting monarch from a palace in a foreign land is not high on their list of priorities.

While he has traveled overseas since his diagnosis, such as popping over the English Channel to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy in June, this trip will be a significant moment for Charles.

“It is notable that he is visiting Australia in the year after his coronation, as this echoes the 1954 tour by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, following her coronation in 1953,” said George Gross, royal historian and visiting research fellow at King’s College London.

The lack of travel to Commonwealth realms following his accession had raised eyebrows. The announcements of the first overseas tours to Germany and France were met with surprise. Those trips were followed by a visit to Kenya, which is a Commonwealth member but not a realm.

Charles is head of the Commonwealth organization – an association of 56 independent countries. In 15 of those nations – including the United Kingdom – he is also head of state, though the role is largely ceremonial. Many had expected a stop in New Zealand might have been on the cards while he was in the region. However, while it had been considered, it was ultimately decided against following medical advice.

Aides have been working to ensure this long-haul tour is not too taxing for the king. Each engagement will have been handpicked to reflect the royal couple’s interests, and where necessary, have been modified to minimize any risks to his convalescence.

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They’ll spend time in the Australian capital, Canberra, where they will be welcomed by Albanese – who supports a republic – and other government leaders.

They’ll also pay their respects to the country’s fallen at the Australian War Memorial and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial.

Charles will also meet with award-winning professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer – the current Australians of the Year. They’re working on a treatment for melanoma, one of Australia’s most common cancers, and Scolyer himself has been treated for brain cancer.

The King’s program also includes several environmental engagements, and the couple will attend a timeless Aussie ritual – a community barbecue. Australians will also get a chance to see the royal couple outside Sydney Opera House.

Kerl plans to be there, once again wearing bright clothing to try to catch the king’s attention.

In some ways, she’s carrying on a family tradition. Back in the 1930s, her father traveled with his mother from Australia to the United Kingdom to see the coronation of King George VI.

“That’s the type of royal-supporting blood I came from. They went from Australia via a ship in those days,” she said.

Kerl’s one-hour train ride from the New South Wales coast will be a lot shorter – but she thinks it’s important to show solidarity with a figure she’s long admired from afar.

“I’ve grown up, like, with him and (Princess) Anne, and here he is finally and having his turn as King. So, I like to support him,” she said.

Why Prince William wants to tackle homelessness. 

Prince William is set to star in a new two-part documentary series that follows his “Homewards” program, a five-year plan launched with the Royal Foundation to demonstrate that it is possible to end homelessness. In a teaser video released Wednesday, the prince appears relaxed as he replies to a question about whether he is the right person to tackle the issue. “I come with no other agenda than desperately trying to help people who are in need, and I see that as part of my role. Why else would I be here if I’m not using this role properly to influence and help people where I can,” he said. Filmed over a 12-month period, the series, which is directed by BAFTA winner Leo Burley, will air in the UK October 30 and 31 on ITV1 at 9 p.m. local time. International release has not yet been announced.  

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Sophie visits Chad, in royal first.  

Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh has become the first member of the royal family to officially visit the Republic of Chad – a country in the grip of an intensifying refugee crisis amid war in neighboring Sudan. During her three-day visit, Sophie visited Adré, a town just 400 meters (around 1,300 feet) from the Chad-Sudan border, which is seeing around 400 new arrivals every day. “This is a human catastrophe that is vast, and Chad is having to pick up the pieces when it can ill afford to do so,” the duchess told the press during her visit. The war in Sudan has forced more than 820,000 people to flee to Chad over the past 18 months, mostly women and girls, according to a Buckingham Palace statement. The duchess is a supporter of the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative and a global champion of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Earlier this year, Sophie became the first British royal to visit Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022, to “show her solidarity with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and torture,” the palace said at the time.  

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King’s Trust

Two years after his accession to the throne, one of King Charles’ charities has just undergone a major makeover. Formerly known as The Prince’s Trust, the organization Charles founded back in 1976 will now be known as The King’s Trust. Despite the name change, its mission to empower young people remains at its heart. The trust believes that every young person should have the chance to succeed, no matter what their background or the challenges they face.  
 
A new logo and tagline, “Working for young people,” has been created pro-bono by renowned creative director James Sommerville, who was himself supported by the charity in 1986, when he was a 19-year-old street artist in Huddersfield, northern England. ATTIK, the agency he co-founded with help from the trust, became one of the UK’s most respected design firms and Sommerville later went on to become vice president of global design at The Coca-Cola Company. 
  
Somerville described it as “both an honor and a privilege” to contribute to the rebrand of the “organization that has meant so much to me for almost 40 years.” Somerville added: “I hope this refreshed brand, timeless yet relevant, serves as a sign of hope and togetherness for the next generation, just as The Trust was for me all those years ago.” 

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The Prince of Wales showed off his American football prowess this week when he attended a community event hosted by the NFL Foundation UK. The organization uses flag football, a non-contact version of American football, to help young people tackle challenges in some of the most deprived communities across the UK. 

While there, William surprised some of those gathered when he had a go at quarterbacking and proved to have some skills. He also met with several NFL players who are currently in London for games, including Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad member Louis Rees-Zammit, a former member of the Welsh national rugby team.

"Exciting times for England, with a generation of talented players and a new manager taking the reins. Thomas, wishing you the best of luck, we’re all behind you!"

– Prince William

England’s football team finally got a new manager this week in the form of former Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel. William, who is president of England’s Football Association, immediately jumped on X to share his delight over the new hire. 

CNN's Billy Stockwell and Kathy Rose O'Brien contributed to this newsletter.