Just In: Queen Camilla Wears Queen Elizabeth’s Symbolic Brooch as She Arrives in Australia for Royal Tour…. Read More

Queen Camilla honored her late mother-in-law with a meaningful piece of jewelry

Queen Camilla is sparkling in something sentimental from Queen Elizabeth’s collection at the start of the royal tour of Australia and Samoa.

On Oct. 18, King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived in Sydney to kick off the nine-day trip which is significant, as it marks both their first tour of a Commonwealth realm of his reign and their longest-haul trip following the King’s cancer diagnosis in February. The King, 75, and Queen, 77, seemed to be in good spirits as they stepped off the plane around 8:30 p.m. local time, where she wore the Australian Wattle Brooch.

Australia’s national flower is the Golden Wattle, and the late Queen Elizabeth received what’s now known as the Australian Wattle Brooch as a gift from the government and people of Australia during her Commonwealth tour of 1954, two years after her sudden accession to the throne at age 25. The pin, commissioned by William Drummond & Co., was designed to look like the spray of a wattle and features white and yellow diamonds.

Queen Elizabeth apparently liked the piece, as she wore it several times throughout her visit to Australia, the Royal Collection Trust said. The Queen wore it many times again through the years, both at home in England and on subsequent trips to the Land Down Under.

Two memorable instances include the Service of Prayer and Dedication for the April 2005 wedding of the future King Charles and Queen Camilla and for her arrival to Australia during what proved to be her final tour there in 2011.

Queen Elizabeth died at age 96 in September 2022 and was immediately succeeded by her eldest son Charles. Earlier that year, Queen Elizabeth expressed her wish that Camilla would be known as Queen Consort when Charles became King, and she went on to inherit that title — along with the keys to the royal family’s enviable jewelry collection.

It was poignant for Queen Camilla to wear her late mother-in-law’s Australian Wattle Brooch as she touched down in the country, though she had previously sported it before. Queen Camilla appeared to wear the same outfit combination — a cobalt blue Fiona Clare dress with the Australian Wattle Brooch — in the official palace portraits released in July when the tour to Australia and Samoa was announced.

The royal couple have a packed schedule the days ahead, including attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2024. The King’s attendance at the biennial meeting was long speculated, as he is the head of the Commonwealth association of 56 nations.

Buckingham Palace said the King and Queen will attend the CHOGM Opening Ceremony and host a dinner for the Commonwealth Heads of Government, where the Queen might make another fashion statement.