The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his partner, Jodie Haydon, have laid a floral tribute to Queen Elizabeth II soon after touching down in London.
Albanese, who laid the small bouquet of white flowers at Green Park in Westminster, said his visit was about “commemorating a life well-lived”.
“It’s a great honour to be representing Australia here,” he said. “Quite clearly, what we can see all around us is the affection in which Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was held by people here in the United Kingdom, but also, of course, in Australia and right around the Commonwealth.”
He will view the Queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall and sign the official condolence book at Lancaster House before a brief audience with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
The King will also host Albanese, heads of state and international VIPs at an official function over the weekend.
Albanese will also meet with the new British prime minister, Liz Truss. Downing Street has framed the conversation as a chat rather than formal bilateral talks.
It says the get-together, at Chevening rather than the prime minister’s official country residence, Chequers, will be an opportunity for condolences over the Queen’s death with political matters also likely to come up.
While there has been no word from Albanese’s office on the nature of the discussions with Truss, trade arrangements are the most likely topic.
Truss will also meet on Saturday with the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, while Albanese is scheduled to have talks with his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau.
Australian troops who will be part of the memorial ceremonies for the Queen have been greeted by the Prince of Wales as they prepare in London.
Prince William and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, visited the group of about 40 Australian defence personnel to thank them for their attendance. The Australian troops will be joined by other commonwealth troops from Canada and New Zealand.
The Queen held a number of defence titles including colonel-in-chief of the Royal Australian Engineers, Royal Australian Infantry, Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps and Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps.
Ten “everyday” Australian citizens from across all states and territories will also attend the Queen’s funeral, along with the governor general, David Hurley, and his wife.
The invitees include the Australian of the Year, Dylan Alcott, Senior Australians of the Year from this year and last, Valmai Dempsey and Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, “local heroes” Shanna Whan, Saba Abraham and Kim Smith, the Western Australian Australian of the year, Helen Milroy, the South Australian Young Australian of the Year, Trudy Lin, the i4give Day founder, Danny Abdallah, and the Australian Racing Hall of Fame’s Chris Waller.
Recipients of Australia’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, including army veteran Ben Roberts-Smith, will also attend.
Roberts-Smith, a former corporal in the SAS, is awaiting a judgment in a defamation case he brought against three Australian newspapers. He is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times for defamation over reports he alleges wrongly portray him as a war criminal and murderer.
The newspapers are defending their reporting as true, including allegations Roberts-Smith was complicit in six murders while deployed to Afghanistan, was a bully, and a perpetrator of domestic violence. Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing.
The Australian federal police have conducted war crimes investigations into allegations against Roberts-Smith, and have submitted briefs of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. No charges have been laid.
On Friday, the former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard said Australia would ultimately become a republic but endorsed Albanese’s view that is was too soon for the debate.
Before flying to London, Albanese said the Queen’s death had made Australians “more conscious of our system of government”, but he has refused to be drawn on timing of a referendum beyond noting his government’s first priority was to recognise First Nations people in the constitution.
The Greens senator Lidia Thorpe – who was forced to retake her oath of allegiance after calling the Queen a coloniser – earlier in the week called on the government to show “ambition” for an Indigenous treaty and a republic in the wake of Elizabeth II’s death.
Thorpe said she had seen “anger and disbelief from First Nations people at the glorification of our oppressor” and she criticised the country’s political leaders for showing “zero regard” for Indigenous people who had “been calling for Day of Mourning for over 80 years”.
“This Country has a new King. The parliament and the Prime Minister are subjugated to someone we didn’t elect. We don’t need a new King, we need a head of state chosen by the people,” Thorpe said on Twitter.
“The process towards being able to pick our own head of state would bring us all together – it would force us to tell the truth about our history and move us towards real action to right the wrongs that started with colonisation.”
• Australian Associated Press and the Press Association contributed to this report
