Ahead of the Sussexes’ first day of their tour in Australia, local newspapers criticised the couple’s visit.

Harry and Meghan are on a tour of Australia (Image: Josh Stanyer/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were savaged in local headlines ahead of the first day of their tour in Australia. The Sussexes are currently on a trip visiting Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, which began on April 14.

A spokesman for the couple said the trip would “focus on mental health, community resilience and support for veterans and their families, alongside private meetings and special projects”. In a savage seven-word headline, ahead of their arrival, a Melbourne newspaper article read: “No One Cares about Sussex’s ‘Faux’ tour.” Monday’s Sydney Morning Herald also wrote: “Australia was good to Harry and Meghan. Now they want to use us as an ATM.”

The Sussex camp insisted that the trip would be privately funded and not financed by the taxpayer, but there has been an online petition which over 46,000 people have signed, demanding that no part of the visit should be paid for out of the public purse.

Harry and Meghan on Day 1 of their Australia tour (Image: Jonathan Brady-Pool/Getty Images)

It has been six years since the Sussexes left their royal roles, although they have carried out a series of visits in recent years, including to Colombia and Nigeria.

The couple landed at Melbourne Airport today, around 06:30 on Tuesday, on a Qantas commercial flight from Los Angeles.

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It is Harry and Meghan’s first time in Australia since 2018, when they spent around nine days in the country as part of an intense tour just a few months after their marriage.

At the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, hundreds of people gathered in the foyer for a glimpse of Harry and Meghan. The Duchess also visited a women’s refuge in Melbourne, where she served plates of frittata to people at the centre.

Prince Harry and Meghan visited a hospital (Image: Jonathan Brady / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Later on, they attended the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum in Melbourne, meeting veterans and their families and taking part in a pottery class.

Prince Harry is due to give a keynote speech at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit in Melbourne later this week.

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Though the official tour programme ends on Friday evening with a rugby match in Sydney, on Saturday, the Duchess will hold an “in-person conversation” at a wellness retreat in a five-star Sydney beachside hotel.

The Australia trip will be Harry’s first public appearance since it emerged last week he was being sued for defamation by Sentebale, which is the African charity he co-founded.