The Brisbane crowd for Charles and Camilla was barely a tenth of the number who came to see the Queen seven years ago

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The next-in-line to the throne can’t pull a crowd like his mother.

A few thousand people, most clutching umbrellas and standing in mud up to their ankles, were at the City Botanic Gardens in Brisbane for what was billed as a “historic opportunity” to meet the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

Those who did brave the conditions were certainly full of fervour. For the monarchy, and the royals themselves.

But it is also interesting to note who stayed home.

The republican prime minister, for example, who had been in Brisbane the previous day to announce a new road project, skipped the formal greeting at Old Government House. Malcolm Turnbull handed over official duties to the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton.

And many of the royalists who came to see Queen Elizabeth, during her most recent, and likely final, visit to Brisbane in 2011. They were missing too.

The crowd was barely a tenth of the 45,000 people who came, 30 deep in some places, to see the Queen seven years ago.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, receives flowers during the visit to Brisbane. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

A downpour hit the city less than an hour before the scheduled arrival of Charles and Camilla. Those who made it into Brisbane, including many British expats and tourists, were rapturous when the royal couple took their public walk along a 150m stretch of the gardens.

Camilla asked Noosa girls Bella and Angelique whether they had the day off school. They were on holidays, the girls, who had come to Brisbane for the occasion, informed her.

“I’m very pleased to meet you,” Bella told the Duchess.

Friends Sussan Moore and Dan Symond took an extended lunch break to see the royals.

Moore said the crowd showed people still backed the monarchy and that she would like to see it remain with Charles as king. Symond said he was a republican but that it was still a thrill to see members of the royal family close-up.

“I’d have probably been interested if it was the Dutch royal family,” he said. “I think good on them. It’s good of them to be here.”

The vast majority of the crowd, though, were royalists. Young monarchists, wearing blazers, badges and cream trousers, handed out Australian flags to the crowd. A small number of people cheered when the big screen television coverage announced that “thankfully” an Indigenous protest had been broken up to allow the Queen’s Baton Relay to progress to tonight’s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

Turnbull will meet the royals before the ceremony tonight. He told ABC Radio this morning the prince was a thoughtful, charming and knowledgeable man.

“We always get on very well,” he said. “The prince and I, and Lucy, share a lot of common interests, particularly in terms of urbanism, architecture, planning, environment and ecology.”

The Queensland-based Real Republic movement suggested that Turnbull’s stance on the republic – that the discussion should be shelved while the ageing Queen remains our head of state – could make tonight’s reception a frosty one.

“Discussion of our nation becoming a republic should never be about the current monarch, the heirs to the British throne, any other member of the royal family, or the family as a whole,” the group’s chairman, David Muir, said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prince Charles inspects the royal guard in Brisbane. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

“It should certainly never be built around a strategy that effectively sets up Prince Charles as the focus of a negative campaign.

“Australians, even diehard republicans, should respect the royal family and especially the Queen for her service over a record-breaking reign. She is truly one of the great figures of world history.

“That respect, the welcome given to the royal family whenever any of them visit, and our role within the Commonwealth, will not change when we are a republic.”

The prince and duchess also visited children at the Lady Cilento children’s hospital.