Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had just landed in Australia for his 15th visit, where they were feted by crowds while sampling the fine local wines, cheeses and seafood at South Australia's Barossa Valley, before attending Remembrance Day ceremonies in Canberra. 
It was all going so well.
But a new poll released by the Australian Republican Movement carries a blunt message from Australian voters: 51 per cent would prefer an Australian head of state to "King Charles" when the time comes for him to replace his mother, Queen Elizabeth.
The poll of 1008 voters, commissioned by the ARM and conducted by Essential Research from   November 5 to 8, asked, "When Prince Charles becomes King of Australia, will you support or oppose replacing the British monarch with an Australian citizen as Australia's head of state?"
Just 27 per cent of voters opposed replacing him with an Australian head of state, while 22 per cent of people were undecided.
Perhaps more significantly, 50 per cent of Coalition voters - who typically are less likely to back a Republic, supported constitutional change, with 34 per cent opposed to it.
Among Labor voters, 62 per cent supported change when Charles becomes king and 21 per cent oppose it, while for Greens voters, 57 per cent support change and 17 per cent oppose it.
As Charles and Camilla arrived in Canberra on Wednesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull brushed aside questions about whether he believed - as he has previously argued - that Australians would struggle to accept Prince Charles as King of Australia one day.
"If the Queen's reign comes to an end and the constitution is in the form it is today, Prince Charles will become our head of state ... so if Charles become the King of the United Kingdom as I have no doubt he will be, unless our constitution has been changed, he will become the King of Australia," he said.
And the prospect of such constitutional change? "The opportunities for constitutional change are somewhat more challenging than the opportunities for strong economic growth."
ARM chairman Peter FitzSimons said while the movement welcomed Charles and Camilla to Australia, "we look forward to the day when members of the royal family make the trip as our equals and not Australia's current and future rulers".
Mr Fitzsimons said he had spoken to Mr Turnbull about the republic since the change of leadership and had been left in no doubt the Prime Minister's passion for the change was undimmed. "But he said it has to be a people's movement and it does need to be, wide and broad," he said.
As far back as   January 31, 1988, Mr Turnbull wrote in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that an "Australian Republic must await the end of her [Queen Elizabeth's] reign" - but that "if her son wishes to do something of significance in Australia's history, he should make it plain that, whatever the Australians may think, he will not be our King".
It is unclear if Mr Turnbull and Prince Charles will discuss this suggestion when they meet on Wednesday.