The Queen has been a part of Australians’ daily life ever since she became the country’s queen in 1952, with her image appearing on postage stamps, coins, and bank notes in addition to school pictures, the Christmas message, and swearing-in ceremonies.
In addition to being shown in Parliament, her likeness is publicly displayed in everyday life on the Australian $5 bill.
She is the longest-serving queen of Britain and the Commonwealth, and politicians, governors general, and other officials pledge loyalty to her. She plays a consistent role in our country’s daily operations.
She is shown on Australian passports, which also state that all nationals should be let to “travel freely without let or hindrance” as “the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia being the representative in Australia of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.”
Many Australians have never known another monarch, and every new person who becomes a constituent is constitutionally entitled to receive a particular image of Her Majesty.
On her first royal visit to Australia in 1954, then-prime minister Robert Menzies gifted her the “wattle spray” brooch, which she has worn ever since at Australian and Commonwealth events.
We are given a day off in observance of her birthday every year, and on December 25, Australians have a custom of watching the Queen’s Christmas address, in which she discusses the year that has just ended and her people’ struggles throughout the 54 Commonwealth nations.
But that will all change today that Queen Elizabeth II has passed away at age 96, ending her 70-year reign as Britain’s and the Commonwealth’s longest-reigning queen.
It’s an Australian tradition to sit down on the evening of December 25 and watch the Queen’s televised Christmas message and this year King Charles III’s first message will no doubt reflect on his mother’s death and her extraordinary reign
Australia Post marked the Queen’s platinum Jubilee with stamps (above) and will do so with her passing and to mark the succession of King Charles III
The Queen’s face has endured through redesigns of the $5 note and although these notes will remain legal tender they will be gradually phased and replaced with King Charles III image
Some of the changes will be immediate, some will happen after a 28-day period of mourning, with other things changing more gradually.
With the immediate proclamation of Charles as the king on the Queen’s death, new coins and bank notes will be minted bearing his face.
The new cash will be minted and distributed into general circulation, with the old money bearing the Queen’s image still legal tender but gradually being phased out.
New passports issued will bear the words ‘His Majesty King Charles the Third’, but existing passports will remain legal until their expiry.
All swearing in ceremonies will have to be altered to acknowledge allegiance to King Charles III.
To this day, NSW Police Force officers have sworn to ‘well and truly serve our Sovereign Lady the Queen as a police officer without favour or affection, malice or ill-will until I am legally discharged, that I will cause Her Majesty’s peace to be kept and preserved’.
Each Australian passport bearing the words ‘Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second’ will remain valid until expiry but new passports will have ‘His Majesty King Charles the Third’
The Queen’s image on the obverse of Australian coins has aged with her and though the coins will remain in use they will gradually be replaced with coins bearing her son’s face
An estimation of an Australian 20 cent coin with King Charles II’s face on the obverse side
One immediate change will be in court documents, although the ‘R v’ initials won’t change they will represent in full ‘Rex versus (the defendant)’ rather than ‘Regina’, both Latin names for male or female monarchs
In court rooms across Australia cases have been mounted against offenders using the Latin name for the Queen, ‘Regina’ versus the defendant.
The lettering will remain ‘R v’, but the initial will now stand for the Latin word for king, which is ‘Rex’.
One of the major changes in Australia – along with other sovereign nations – will be that Queen’s birthday public holiday vacated in favour of what will now be called the King’s birthday long weekend.
The date – which is currently the second Saturday of June, except in Queensland and Western Australia, and was moved from the Queen’s April birthday back in 1959 – could also be revised as November-born King Charles III ascends the throne.
When prime ministers are sworn in by governors-general (above Anthony Albanese with Australia C-G David Hurley in May) they will swear allegiance to ‘His Majesty King Charles III’ from now on
The Queen, above at the microphone at Sandringham House as she delivered her first Christmas message in 1952, which has become a tradition televised through the Commonwealth that Charles will continue
Every new Australian citizen has a legal right to a portrait of the monarch and the photo of the Queen (above wearing the wattle brooch given her on her first Australian tour) will be replaced by an image of Charles III
Although Charles has the choice of selecting the date, he may continue with the same date nominated by his mother.
Whatever the monarch decides it will impinge on more than a long weekend, as each year the monarch’s birthday honours list is announced to award exceptional Australians and in some Commonwealth nations, appointing individuals into national or dynastic orders.
Australia Post, which issued a special stamp for the Queen’s platinum Jubilee, is expected to produce a stamp honouring her passing, and one to mark the succession of of her son Charles.
Australian military uniforms, which have borne the crowns or cyphers of British monarchs including Queen Victoria and King George V, and his daughter – Queen Elizabeth II – will now be decorated with a new symbol fashioned specially for King Charles III.
The changes to Australian currency and customs have been in planning stages for some time, and the Federal Government and its agencies will announce them once the formal period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II comes to an end.
And this year, we will hear King Charles III’s first Christmas message in which he will no doubt reflect on his mother’s death and her extraordinary reign.
Charles will next tour Australia as the king, with his Queen Consort Camilla and when Prince William next tours he will do so in his father’s inherited title, as Duke of Cornwall.