The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are embarking on a four-day visit to Australia, combining both charitable endeavours and commercial engagements across Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney.
The couple’s office said that the trip, which is privately funded and will not include their children, will concentrate on “mental health, community resilience, and support for veterans and their families, alongside private meetings and special projects”.
The visit, running from Tuesday to Friday, will notably feature no public walkabouts.
Among the private commercial activities, Meghan is scheduled to be interviewed on stage at a “girls’ weekend” retreat in Sydney.
Tickets for the event, organised by Gemma O’Neill of the Her Best Life podcast, are priced at £1,400.
VIP access at the five-star InterContinental Coogee Beach hotel costs £1,670, which includes a group table photograph with the duchess.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry will appear as a guest speaker on Thursday at Melbourne’s InterEdge Summit.
The event, held at the Centrepiece conference venue, explores the “intersection of leadership, psychosocial safety and human connection in the workplace”.
Delegate tickets are available for £525, platinum tickets for £1,250, and a virtual ticket offering on-demand access to Harry’s speech costs £260.
The Office of Harry and Meghan said: “Across all engagements, the visit will highlight the duke and duchess’s continued commitment to supporting mental health, strengthening support for the armed forces community, and championing the power of connection and shared experience to drive positive change.”
A petition on Change.org demanding “no taxpayer funding or official support for Harry and Meghan’s private visit to Australia” arguing that “public funds should not be used for private visits”, has attracted more than 45,000 signatures.
The New South Wales Police Force said it would “conduct an operation to ensure public safety is maintained during the visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”.
A spokesperson for the force, which is responsible for policing Sydney, said: “The operation will require some additional security measures throughout their stay in New South Wales, while minimising any disruption to the community.”
Victoria Police said it “does not provide comment on specific operational arrangements”.
A spokesperson for the force, which is responsible for policing Melbourne, added: “Police are aware two high-profile people are visiting Melbourne in a private capacity in April.
“Police routinely assess events and visits and will deploy resources as necessary to ensure community safety.”
The Australian Federal Police has been approached for comment.
Beginning in Melbourne, the duke and duchess will engage with organisations delivering services to young people and vulnerable women, alongside a visit to one of Australia’s leading children’s hospitals.
Meghan will also undertake an engagement highlighting community-led support for women at a homeless services centre.
Harry and Meghan’s office said the couple will “place particular emphasis on the veteran community”, joining families and artists connected to the Australian National Veterans Art Museum and supporting Invictus Australia.
It added that this will continue in Canberra, where Harry will attend engagements at the Australian War Memorial, including the Last Post Ceremony.
Harry and Meghan also have engagements with Movember and the Australian mental health organisation Batyr.
In Sydney, the couple will join members of the Invictus community on the water in Sydney Harbour and meet past competitors.
The visit will conclude at a rugby fixture in Sydney between New South Wales Waratahs and Moana Pasifika at the Allianz Stadium on Friday.
The Sussexes carried out an official royal tour to Australia in 2018, five months after their royal wedding, and Meghan’s pregnancy with Prince Archie was announced shortly after their arrival.
Harry said in his autobiography that Meghan “dazzled” crowds on the “hugely demanding tour”, but warned her she was “doing too well” and “making it look too easy” like Diana, Princess of Wales.
In Spare, published in 2023, he wrote: “Everyone knew that Mummy’s situation went from bad to worse when she showed the world, showed the family, that she was better at touring, better at connecting with people, better at being ‘royal’, than she had any right to be.”
Harry’s parents, Charles and Diana, visited Australia with their newly born son William on their first major royal overseas tour in 1983.
The 21-year-old princess proved a big draw with the Australian public, and the royal tour was hailed as a success in promoting the monarchy.
After returning home to “jubilant welcomes and exultant headlines” following their own Australia tour, Harry said in his memoir that he and his wife began to receive negative press, including a “work of fiction about Meg making her staff miserable”.
Harry also undertook a portion of his gap year living and working as a “jackaroo” on a cattle ranch in rural Queensland, saying in his autobiography that “Tooloombilla was nothing like Eton” and he enjoyed the “hard, sweaty, non-stop labour” in “relentless heat”.
Writing in Spare, Harry said of his nine-week stint in Australia in 2003: “This wasn’t merely work. Being a jackaroo required stamina, but it also demanded a certain artistry.
“You had to be a whisperer with the animals. You had to be a reader of the skies, and the land. You also had to possess a superior level of horsemanship.”
The duke added that he took to wearing a felt cowboy hat and adopted the nickname “Spike” while in the country, after comparisons were made between his haircut and the spines of an echidna from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.
The King is the monarch of Australia, one of the Commonwealth realms, and serves as the country’s head of state.
Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia in 1954, where she was greeted by huge crowds across the nation with millions seeing her in person during the tour.
Charles visited Australia as King in 2024, accompanied by Queen Camilla, on a tour that saw the couple take part in a community barbecue and a walkabout at the Sydney Opera House.
A referendum on Australia becoming a republic in 1999 was defeated by 54.4 per cent of voters, despite earlier polls suggesting that a majority supported the change.
Australia’s current prime minister, Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese, is a lifelong republican but in 2025 ruled out calling a referendum on the issue during his time in office.
