On the morning of September 9, Australians woke to the news that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's 70-year reign had come to a close. The Queen passed away surrounded by her family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, after several months of declining health. She was aged 96. There will now follow a number of formalities in Commonwealth countries including Australia to memorialise and mourn the late Head of State.
Firstly, the Australian parliament will be suspended for 15 days as a mark of respect, echoing similar moves by the UK and Canadian governments as well as other Commonwealth countries and territories. Unlike the UK, however, which will now observe two weeks of national mourning, Australia will only mark a single day of mourning, with a memorial service on September 22 and a national public holiday has been announced by the prime minister to coincide with this.
Australians can expect to see flags on monuments, landmarks and political buildings across Australia fly at half-mast until the day after the Queen’s funeral, which is scheduled to take place in London on September 19.
The monarchy’s representative in Australia, governor-general David Hurley, will address the nation at 6.55pm on September 9 to acknowledge the Queen’s passing on behalf of her Australian subjects. Prime minister Anthony Albanese, along with Hurley and the acting commissioner to the UK Lynette Wood, will make the journey to London in the next week or so to see the Queen lying in state, attend the state funeral and meet the newly ascended King Charles III.
Here in Australia, a national mourning service will be held in Canberra, but this will wait until after Australia’s delegation to the Queen’s funeral has returned home, in approximately 12 days' time. The nation will be invited to observe a minute’s silence during that event. Albanese has also said that there will be additional memorials, as yet to be planned, to celebrate the Queen’s reign in Australia. These will include gun salutes, the first of which is scheduled to take place at dusk on September 9 at Parliament House. The residents of Canberra will hear a total of 96 rounds ring out across the city – one for every year of the Queen’s life – which will take around 16 minutes to complete. Gun salutes are also to be arranged in state capitals across the country in the coming days.
While it is traditional for floral tributes from the public to be laid at Parliament House and government buildings in state capitals, the royal family has encouraged mourners to instead make a donation to one of the many charities the Queen was a patron of during her life.