Both sides claimed victory.
Esther Anatolitis, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, said it had been a “galvanising time”, adding: “We’ve been delighted to see people from all over Australia and all over the world asking why Australia still has a king.”
Philip Benwell, national chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, said the “fervour and size of the crowds that came out not just to see the King and Queen but to enthusiastically welcome them to Australia” proved that the “monarchy remains in the heart of the majority of the Australian people”.
Then, on the final day, came the fun. The King and Queen wielded large tongs to flip sausages at a barbecue, the monarch delivered a speech full of local lingo in which he pronounced the food “top tucker” and a menagerie of animals from an alpaca in a bow tie to a parrot greeting the Queen with “hello” turned out to lighten the mood.
It culminated in that Sydney Opera House moment. The size of the crowds was impressive and the enthusiasm of the welcome remarkable.
The local media was energetic and kind; their pages and broadcasts considered by the palace to be a better measure of success on tour than the British media at home.
The couple were waved off on Wednesday morning by Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, an avowed republican whose welcome and attentiveness spoke volumes about both the country’s hosting skills and his growing relationship with the head of state.
It did not, one source said pointedly, feel like the “farewell tour” the Australian Republican Movement had pushed for.
“Thank you to all who came out to show their support,” Buckingham Palace told the Australian public as the monarch took off from Sydney, “and for so many special memories”.
On Thursday, they will begin their state visit to Samoa in earnest. It will be a tour of two halves.