Staunch republican Peter FitzSimons has taken a shot at the monarchy by comparing photos of crowds during Princess Diana’s visit to Australia and the King and Queen’s most recent trip Down Under.
Charles and Camilla left Australia on Wednesday morning following five days of official engagements in Sydney and Canberra.
About 10,000 people turned out to see the King and Queen at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to shake hands and grab a brief conversation with Their Majesties.
Just hours after their meet and greet, FitzSimons, the former chair of the Australian Republican Movement, shared a photo of the enormous crowd waiting to see then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s visit the Opera House in 1983 – almost 40 years ago – next to an image of those wanting to see Charles and Camilla on Tuesday.
Diana and Charles’s trip to Australia in 1983 sparked mania – with some 400,000 people coming out to see the royal pair in Brisbane. News photographer Jayne Fincher said she was ‘shocked’ by the size of the crowds at Sydney Harbour for Princess Di, when a huge crowd gathered on the Opera House steps.
In comparison, the crowd this week appeared to be significantly smaller for the King and Queen – at least in the photo FitzSimons shared – with the steps of the Opera House completely empty.
‘As they say in the classics, looks like a cast of dozens awaiting their king,’ Fitzsimons said.
Staunch republican Peter FitzSimons has taken a shot at the monarchy by comparing photos of crowds during Princess Diana ‘s visit to Australia in 1983 and the King and Queen’s most recent trip Down Under
Aussies weren’t allowed on the steps of the Opera House for the royal visit this year
One Aussie responded to FitzSimsons: ‘I remember that tour, when Diana came, the whole country went nuts. Crowds everywhere she went.
‘They weren’t there to see Charles. Public transport was chokkas, I lived in Sydney at that time, it was absolutely huge, nothing like this week’s visit.’
However, many pointed out that security measures on Tuesday meant royals fans were unable to stand on the steps as they were for Princess Diana – making it an unfair comparison.
And no historical report gives an exact estimate of how many Australians gathered at Circular Quay that day.
An attendee of this week’s event said: ‘I was there today. The shot on the right (or today) does not represent a small crowd at all. The steps were sectioned off from the crowd. The crowd was looking towards the steps and sails.’
Other photos from the King and Queen’s trip to the Opera House show huge crowds snaking back towards the ferry terminal and up nearby streets.
The 1983 visit of Princess Diana and then Prince Charles was, however, notably different to the recent trip from the royals, largely down to Diana.
Countless Aussie fans were desperate to get a glimpse of Diana, then 21.
The entire Opera House was completely packed with fans desperate to meet the princess in March, 1983
Furor erupted when Diana came to Sydney in 1983
Princess Diana and the then Prince Charles are seen in Sydney again in 1988
It was also Charles and Diana’s first overseas trip together, having been married for less than two years, and the fanfare over the princess greatly eclipsed that of her husband.
During an interview with the BBC in 1995, Diana said the clear preference for her over Charles during the tour made her ‘uncomfortable’.
‘The pressure on us both as a couple with the media was phenomenal, and misunderstood by a great many people,’ she said.
‘We’d be going round Australia, for instance, and all you could hear was, ”oh, she’s on the other side”.
‘Now, if you’re a man, like my husband a proud man, you mind about that if you hear it every day for four weeks. And you feel low about it, instead of feeling happy and sharing it.
‘With the media attention came a lot of jealousy, a great deal of complicated situations arose because of that.’
The trip to Australia was portrayed in hit Netflix series The Crown.
Huge crowds also turned out for the King and Queen this week
As many as 10,000 people showed up in support of the King and Queen
Charles and Camilla stopped to speak to members of the public on Tuesday
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