PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese, who has extended an invitation to Charles to make his 17th visit and first as king to Australia, is on his way home from the UK after the coronation procession ended.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who did not attend the London ceremony, said the coronation was a momentous occasion for the British people, Australians and all citizens of the Commonwealth.

“It’s a moment when an age-old tradition brings with it both a sense of reconnection to history and regeneration in our times,” he said in a statement.

The avowed monarchist noted that the King respected the right of all the peoples of the Commonwealth to determine their own destiny, including moves to a republic.

“In 1994, Charles said that whatever course Australia takes, that is something which only the Australian people can decide,” he added.

“In the meantime, all his family will ‘continue to take a close personal interest in the welfare and fortunes of this country’.”

Mr Albanese, a self-proclaimed “lifelong republican,” described the coronation as a “historic event of enormous significance”.

He is returning to Canberra for the federal budget on Tuesday.

At 3pm on Sunday, a 21-gun salute, by Australia’s Federation Guard, will be held on the forecourt of Parliament House in Canberra.

This will be followed by a flypast from the Royal Australian Air Force to mark the coronation.

The Returned Services League of Australia (RSL) national president Greg Melick said Australian service people played an important part in the official celebrations.

“The RSL sincerely congratulates King Charles III on his Coronation and wishes him a long and successful reign,” he said.

But the coronation triggered upset in some quarters, with independent Senator Lidia Thorpe addressing a Sovereign Tea Party in Melbourne on Saturday about the “violent colonial occupation” by the British.

“Today is a painful day for our people and all colonised people around the world,” Senator Thorpe said.

“The British Empire proudly displays the wealth it has stolen from us while our people continue to suffer and die at the hands of a colonial system that was violently imposed on us.”

Australian singer Nick Cave, who lives in the UK these days and attended the coronation as part of the Australian delegation, had said earlier in the week it would “more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age. Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest.”

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