Charles makes first public appearance on Australia tour

SYDNEY

King Charles III attended church on Sunday as he began an Australian tour in earnest, giving antipodean admirers the first glimpse of their reigning monarch.

The 75-year-old sovereign arrived in Sydney late on Oct. 18 evening, but had kept a low profile as he balances cancer recovery with royal duties.

His first official public appearance was a morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church in northern Sydney, a stone edifice built as a place of worship for British colonial settlers.

A number of prominent British colonists are buried in the church's graveyard nearby, including Edward Wollstonecraft, a cousin of "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley.

Charles later addressed the New South Wales state parliament and made a short trip to Admiralty House for a string of closed-door meetings with high-ranking officials.

The harborside mansion is the Sydney residence of Australia's governor-general, the monarch's representative Down Under.

Royal watchers eager to glimpse the king will have another chance today, when he arrives in the capital Canberra alongside Queen Camilla for the busiest stretch of his slimmed-down schedule.

Charles, who received the life-changing cancer diagnosis just eight months ago, is on a nine-day visit to Australia and Samoa, the first major foreign tour since he was crowned.

Visiting British royals have typically carried out weeks-long visits to stoke support, parading through streets packed with thrilled, flag-waving subjects.

But the king's fragile health this time around has seen much of the typical grandeur scaled back.