The world is set to stop once again to mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II, following her passing at the age of 96, as millions gather in London and across the globe ahead of her funeral.

As millions of Australians stop to pay their respects to the longest-serving monarch in history, NewsCorp reporters have retraced the steps of Queen Elizabeth’s first visit to Australian shores in 1954 — commemorating the first time a British monarch ever set foot on our soil.

On February 3, 1954, a newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II sailed into Sydney Harbour at Farm Cove at 27-years-old — with more than 1 million people gathering across the city to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty.

A landmark 58-day tour of Australia followed with 57 towns across the country visited by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, including a series of official engagements in Sydney, Newcastle, Casino, Lismore, Dubbo, Wollongong, Bathurst, Lithgow, Katoomba, Wagga Wagga, as well as the nation’s capital, Canberra.

Dr Cindy McCreery, a British monarchy historian at the University of Sydney, said those early visits by Queen Elizabeth were “momentous”.

“It was an enormously important event — something like three quarters of the population came out in hot summer days and lined up on the streets,” she said of the 1954 tour.

“You could talk to older Australians today and they still vividly remember queuing up to see a glimpse of the Queen. It was such a big moment in their life.”

Dr McCreery described the rock-star-like reception the Queen enjoyed on her visits across the state.

“It was like a rock star welcome, that kind of absolute delight and hysteria, but married with a sense of great reverence,” she said.

“She was absolutely welcomed with huge fanfare everywhere she went, and women in particular felt a particular connection with her.”

The love affair between the Harbour City and the Queen started well before 1954, however, it was cemented when about one million people gathered in Sydney’s streets and Farm Cove to welcome the first reigning British monarch to ever visit the land down under.

Then, a 27-year-old Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip stopped the nation.

It was February 3, 1954, and one major newspaper described the moment as “the most tumultuous greeting Sydney has ever given any visitor”.

Toni Lucas was six when she got a glimpse of the Queen in the city’s south.

“I remember when I went with my mum to the Princes Hwy to see her on that 1954 visit,” she said.

Click on the arrows to scroll through our Royal Train gallery

“I was six and went up on my dad’s shoulders to catch a glimpse of a real queen – I will never forget the excitement of the occasion!”

It was a packed visit full of firsts for the queen and city: the opening official events included the investiture of Sir Hudson Fysh (founder of QANTAS) at Government House as well as the opening of NSW parliament, the Lord Mayor’s Ball at Sydney Town Hall and a surf lifesaving show at Bondi Beach.

“The 1954 trip was particularly important, it was her first as the queen, but it was the first reigning monarch to come to Australian soil,” City of Sydney historian Lisa Murray said.

“It was extra important for that reason, and all the stops came out in 1954.”

Ms Murray said at the 1954 Mayoral Ball at Town Hall to celebrate the Queen’s arrival, manners dictated that you couldn’t eat before the queen – who said hello to every single person before she left late into the night.

“Protocol and manners dictated you couldn’t eat before the queen, so when she departed at around 11pm, everyone then rushed to the buffet and demolished all the food,” Ms Murray said.

“It’s such a wonderful story of how everyone respected protocol and her presence.”

The queen also blessed Central Station, en route to the state’s north.

“The Royal Train took the Queen from Sydney to Newcastle on 9 February

1954, then Her Majesty returned from a visit to Wollongong by train from Bulli

to Sydney on 11 February and from Bathurst to Sydney on 12 February,” heritage transport specialist Amy Keighran said.

One of the carriages lives on at the NSW Rail Museum.

The NSW state library reports the royal tour of 1954 was the single biggest event ever planned in Australia.

Planning started five years earlier, when the idea was for Elizabeth’s father, King George VI to visit Australia and New Zealand.

Click on the arrows to scroll through our 1954 Sydney visit gallery

But due to her father’s declining health, back up plans were made for then-Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to visit instead.

Her Royal Highness was at a safari lodge in Kenya in 1952, on the way to Australia, when she learned of her father’s devastating passing.

She quickly returned to England and when she returned to the country in 1954, she was the Queen.

Today, City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore led tributes, praising the Queen’s longevity.

“Like many, I’m very sad to wake to the news that Queen Elizabeth II has died,” the lord mayor said. “A historic reign has come to an end. She was stoic and responsible and devoted to public service to the end.”

The Hunter Valley saw the first visit of Queen Elizabeth II in February, 1954 when her majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Newcastle.

They were met by a thrilled crowd of over 250,000 visiting BHP Steelworks, the International Sports Centre, now known as McDonald Jones Stadium and the Newcastle showgrounds in Broadmeadow just weeks before the upcoming show.

President of the Newcastle Agricultural Horticultural and Industrial Association Peter Evans was just eight years old when he was one of thousands of schoolchildren who packed the showground venue.

“It was lovely,” Mr Evans recalled. “The grandstands were absolutely packed. So many people. Extraordinary.

“The Queen came in the back of a Land Rover and we could all see her.”

One memory he has of that day was an umbrella kept by his parents, used to shelter the Queen from the elements.

“For some reason my father was called on to produce his umbrella, and a good friend of his Ian MacKenzie, held it over the Queen’s head,” he said.

“The umbrella was then kept by my mother, she died as about the same age as the Queen and it was not used since and I kept it with cobwebs collecting since that time.

“It’s a very special memory of the Queen which the family has.”

Margaret Badger, the daughter of Newcastle’s first female Lord Mayor Joy Cummings in the 70s and 80s, also sat on the north side of Hunter St as a five-year-old with hundreds of other children, and waved at the Queen as she drove past.

“I remember being pleased because the Queen sat on my side. We all had little union flags to wave,” she said.

“It was the days of empire, when the map of the world was mostly red. God Save the Queen was our national anthem, played at the movies, at sports and other events, school classrooms had her photo on the wall.

“Like most Australians I have always been fond of her and respected her devotion to duty.”

Click on the arrows to scroll through our 1954 Newcastle visit gallery

The Newcastle Museum also has many memories of the Queen, and a memento from the school captain of Newcastle Girls High School from 1954.

Joan Cobb was the representative when her majesty visited a combined gathering of all schoolchildren from Newcastle and surrounding areas.

The glove she was wearing, and shook the hand of the Queen with, has been donated to the museum for all to see.

But while it was only a short visit in the 50s, her majesty again returned to the Hunter in 1970, 1977 and then in 1988.

Long serving former Newcastle Lord Mayor John McNaughton got the pleasure of meeting Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip when she had her last visit.

Current Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said her death marks the end of an era and the close of the second Elizabethan age.

“The Queen visited Newcastle a number of times throughout her reign, officially opening the Newcastle Art Gallery and Queens Wharf,” she said.

“Our City’s flags will immediately fly at half-mast until further notice and I will advise of where you are able to sign the official condolence book shortly.

“May she rest in peace.”

A 10-year-old Ray Frost caught a glimpse of the Queen travelling via the Royal Train from Sydney to Newcastle.

The Newtown boy was holidaying with his family on the Central Coast when Her Majesty made her maiden tour of Australia.

Mr Frost said he is still mesmerised by the snapshot in time nearly 70 years on with a photo of him and his family on a launch all he has to remember the moment.

“We are staying at Ettalong when the Queen was en route to Newcastle,” Mr Frost told NewsLocal.

“She was standing on a platform at the end of the train when she went over the bridge. It was only a fleeting sight, but we got a wave from her while we were floating around on a little launch.

“We were all amazed to see the Queen. We would have probably said ‘Wow’, we were very privileged.”

Her Majesty toured the NSW Northern Rivers just days before the horrific 1954 flood disaster struck.

The Queen flew into Evans Head Aerodrome before a convoy progressed through the towns of Casino and Lismore.

A crowd of more than 5,000, many of whom waited for hours in the driving rain, was reported as greeting the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh with a deafening cheering as they stepped out of the plane.

The masses lined the streets as the Royal convoy drove through the region with the drivers switching off their lights so people could have a better view of the Queen and Duke.

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s 1954 visit to Casino

Many of the 15,000 people who packed into Casino‘s CBD had camped out to get a prime spot to see Her Majesty pass through.

Police are said to have given up their attempts to keep the crowds back from the barricades on the eastern side of Walker st.

The Queen stopped at the Casino Council chambers as well as Carrington Park with the council, under Mayor Alderman Manyweathers, renaming it Queen Elizabeth Park in her honour.

The Royals flew out from Evans Head before touching down in Dubbo for the next leg of their tour.

The region turned into survival mode after the Queen left as the Richmond River peaked at 13.4 metres and the area was hit by the follow through of a weather event dubbed the “Great Gold Coast Cyclone”.

Lismore Mayor, Steve Krieg said Queen Elizabeth will always hold a special place in the heart of the Lismore community.

The Queen and Prince Philip visited Lismore on Wednesday, 10 February 1954 where they stayed at the Gollan Hotel.

“When our community was hit by a natural disaster on 28 February, the Queen and Prince Charles sent messages of support which were greatly appreciated by our community,” Mr Krieg said.

“May she Rest In Peace.”

Lismore residents Nancy and Ronald Hambly were only children around the age of 10 when they saw Queen Elizabeth II up close.

Click on the arrows to scroll through our 1954 Lismore gallery

“My husband actually went over to the Gollan Hotel - there was a really huge crowd,” Mrs Hambly told The Northern Star, “and they waited until she came out on the balcony and she waved to everyone.

“I was only 10 or 11 at the time and my parents lived opposite the railway station in South Lismore - the house is actually gone now - but myself, my brothers and mum all went across the road to follow the procession.

“And my mother, being my mother, as the car passed us yelled at the top of her lungs ‘Hello Betty!’ and she just turned and smiled and waved at us.

“It was so lovely because she wasn’t very far away from us and I thought how beautiful she looked,” Mrs Hambly said.

“I was a little embarrassed about mum calling out to the Queen, but she did get her attention and she did look.”

The Gollan Hotel in Lismore is the only hotel the Royal couple stayed at during their Australian tour.

Dubbo’s Karen Doherty will never forget the thrilling moment she met the Queen, which she describes as “the greatest day of her life”.

Having touched down at Dubbo Regional Airport on February 21, 1992, the late Queen Elizabeth II was in for a full day of activities, stopping by Taronga Western Plains Zoo, and hosting a luncheon at the Dubbo War Memorial.

A then-17-year-old Karen Doherty, a school captain of Dubbo High School, counted her lucky stars when she was chosen to welcome the Queen at The School of Distance Education on Myall Street.

“It was an amazing experience, especially to have someone like the Queen come to Dubbo,” Ms Doherty explained.

“I remember everyone was so excited, and I was told that I would be opening the door for her.

“I also spoke to them (Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip) afterwards, I remember we weren’t allowed to speak to them until they spoke to us.

“She was a little more shy than Prince Phillip, he was such a character.”

Ms Doherty reminisced about the conversation, saying Queen Elizabeth II showed keen interest when asking questions about what sports she played, and “saying how lovely we looked”.

“It was obviously a surreal moment, to be chosen for that, she is an amazing, inspiring, incredible woman,” Ms Doherty said.

Click on the arrows to scroll through our Dubbo visit gallery

The Queen was no stranger to Dubbo, having visited the city for a short visit, lasting no longer than two hours on February 10, 1954, almost exactly 38 years before her visit in 1992.

She was greeted at the airport, stopping by Dubbo’s War Memorial, Victoria Park No. 1 Oval, the President Show Society to watch the wood chopping and shearing contests before departing at 5pm.

Pippa Goodman was just a three-year-old at the time shared her own experience of meeting The Queen in 1992, waiting in the heat all day at the Zoo and finally handing Her Majesty “the most wilted bouquet of flowers”.

“I come from a long line of Royalists - my Grandmother took my mother to meet the Queen when she visited [Australia] in about 1971, and then my Mum took me,” Ms Goodman said.

“We’d been standing [at the Zoo] in the sun all day, and I remember saying ‘welcome to Australia Your Majesty’,” Ms Goodman said.

“I remember her thanking me, and she was holding [the flowers] and Prince Phillip was there too … it was quite incredible and a moment I’ll never forget.

“That moment will always be imprinted in my memory.”

The interactions with The Queen didn’t stop there, receiving a reply letter from Buckingham Palace, from Ms Goodman’s namesake, Phillipa - Her Majesty’s Lady in Waiting.

Ms Goodman explained the “sentimental” value the letter has, touching on her emotions, explaining it will be “hard to imagine a world without her”.

The only monarch to ever visit Australia stopped by the NSW country towns of Lithgow and Katoomba several times in her decades-long reign, charming adoring residents who filled the streets to see her through her travels across the Blue Mountains.

Innumerable schoolchildren and residents lined the streets from Main St to the Lewin Bandstand, where the council welcomed Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip to view the town’s sights including the war memorial in 1954.

The park where they stood took a new name, with the council seeking the Queen’s consent to rename Lithgow Park to Queen Elizabeth II Park after her visit.

Local business Lithgow Woollen Mills constructed a red, white and blue carpet especially for the Royals’ visit, and a local girl named Janice Northey presented a bouquet to the young Queen.

The Queen also met with local railway staff after travelling aboard the Royal Train to town.

Then, for 40 years police, a local newspaper and potentially even the Royal Family then kept a secret about an alleged effort to assassinate the Queen during her second visit to Lithgow 16 years later.

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s visit to Katoomba

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were touring Australia in 1970 when they embarked upon a train journey from Sydney to Orange.

The train was rolling through Lithgow on April 29, 1970 when the now-retired Detective Superintendent Cliff McHardy alleges would-be assassins rolled a log onto the tracks in efforts to derail the train.

Len Ashworth, then editor of the Lithgow Mercury local paper – corroborated Mr McHardy’s account, claiming his predecessors agreed in 1970 not to publish anything about it.

The alleged incident – known now as the Lithgow Plot after the allegations came to light in 2009, almost 40 years on – occurred when the Queen was 44.

Mr McHardy said the log became stuck under the train and it slid for 200m, with the Royals aboard unscathed.

When the Mercury broke the story of the allegations in 2009, Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

NSW Police only said they were no longer actively investigating the incident – but that anyone with information was urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

Queen Elizabeth II‘s visit to Bathurst only lasted 75 minutes, however, newspapers heralded it as “Bathurst’s Greatest Day” with many locals old enough still holding the historic event close to their heart.

A crowd of people slept on Kings Pd as people arrived into Bathurst at midnight of February 12 with 4,000 members of the vanguard present.

A welcome arch reading “God Bless the Queen” and “Welcome to Bathurst” was erected for the occasion.

Upon the Queens and Duke of Edinburgh’s arrival in Bathurst they met with the ex-serviceman at the Bathurst Civic Centre before visiting an assembly of schoolchildren at the Bathurst Showgrounds.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were welcomed to 80,000 people and is still known as the greatest crowd the city has ever known.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh left Bathurst on a Royal Train before travelling to Lithgow.

A plaque in Elizabeth Park on the corner of Elizabeth and William streets commemorates Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh’s visit to Bathurst on February 12 1954.

Bathurst native Elizabeth Chifley, the wife of former Prime Minister Ben Chifley, attended many of the events during the tour, including when she visited the Central Tablelands.

Mrs Chifley passed away in 1962, however, her great great niece, Kim Bagot-Hiller, who is an archivist with the Bathurst District Historical Society, said she had been told about the unprecedented event.

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s 1954 visit to Bathurst

“It was a big event for Bathurst, a really big event,” Ms Bagot-Hiller told NewsLocal.

“I‘ve been told school children from all around the region came - as far out as Cowra - so there were 10s of thousands of people that day and it was only about an hour and a half visit.

“Elizabeth Chifley‘s role was as one of the dignitaries present for the Queen in Bathurst. She was invited to many dinners, dances and morning teas (during the tour) by Sir Robert Menzies, who was the Prime Minister at the time.

“Ben had passed away, but that respect was still there, she was very much a part of the whole visit... When looking at the running sheet of everyone there, Elizabeth was the only woman with her full name, it was usually all ‘such and such and wife’.”

Invitations and a chocolate box gifted to Mrs Chifley are now on display as the Bathurst District Historical Society Museum.

Ms Bagot-Hiller said her great great aunty and uncle were both proud monarchists, recalling she had been told about an interaction between Mr Chifley and the now King Charles III.

“Ben and Elizabeth were very respectful and enthusiastic about the royal family,” she said.

“They always had a photo of the Duke of Gloucester (former Governor General Prince Henry William Frederick Albert) and his wife in their house.

“Ben in 1949 went to England and the story in the family is he pushed the pram with the now King Charles III in it.”

The flags outside Wollongong City Council are at half-mast with Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery leading the tributes by describing Her Majesty as “a constant in times of great change”.

Queen Elizabeth ventured to the Illawarra on two occasions during her record 70-year reign, including during her first Down Under journey in 1954, two years after she ascended to the throne.

With her navy man husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Queen visited the Mount Keira Diggers’ Convalescent Camp for morning tea before stops at the Wollongong Showgrounds and the Slackey Flat recreation ground.

Thousands of people, young and old, lined the streets to greet her as the made her way to the Town Hall on Crown St ahead of a civic luncheon at the RSL Hall.

Wollongong’s third ever mayor, Alderman JJ Kelly, and the town clerk, Mr W H Mitchell, accompanied the Royals on the tour through the city with the pair around the masses to farewell them from Bulli Train Station.

The Queen’s second trip to the Illawarra came 26 years later in 1970, this time she was accompanied by her consort as well as a young Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

The Queen disembarked from Royal Yacht HMY Britannia at Port Kembla Harbour before touring to the Town Hall and the Wollongong Education Complex.

It was a visit of heightened importance for the region with Her Majesty granting the title of Lord Mayor to Ernie Ford, signalling Wollongong was officially a city.

“Today, we’re acknowledging the lifelong work of an individual who lived her life in the public eye who was also a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother,” Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said.

“We have all lived our lives with her as a constant figurehead and it’s important we consider this moment in history.

“She represented a constant in times of great change - good and bad - in the second half of the 20th and nearly a quarter of the 21st Century. Remarkable times of rapid change and disruption - the social, political, and technological challenges of post-modernity.”

The crowds that flocked to the Illawarra for Her Majesty’s visits came from right down the south coast with Kiama Mayor Neil Reilly echoing his Wollongong counterpart’s sentiment about the Queen being ever-present in their lives.

“Queen Elizabeth’s coronation was just a few days before my birth,” Mayor Reilly said.

“Her image graced the walls of my schools, my scout halls, my army barracks and our council chamber.

“In one way or another, all my life she was there. Her hard work, her love for Australia and our people was inspirational. I was genuinely and deeply saddened to learn of her passing.”

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s 1954 visit to Wollongong

The tour ran into an obstacle when departing the Illawarra and it came in the form of the “notorious” Bulli Pass.

Officials were concerned the Royal motorcade would overheat ascending the steep mountain pass, leading them to hail the Royal Train from Sydney to collect the Queen from Bulli Train Station.

It proved to be a smart decision with the vehicle - sans Her Majesty - boiling over on the pass and forcing the driver to fetch some water from the Bulli Lookout Kiosk nearby.

The kiosk was run by Bronwen Chamberlain and in the wake of the Queen‘s passing she shared a piece penned by her late husband, Peter, about the brush with royalty.

“My wife Bron dressed my daughter Kerry (three years old) in a royal blue pleated skirt, white top and red cardigan,” Mr Chamberlain wrote in 2002.

“The outfit caught the Queen‘s attention and she spoke to Prince Phillip and they both smiled.”

Mrs Chamberlain told NewsLocal her daughter had shouted “look at this” and reached out and touched the Duke of Edinburgh which was greeted with a ”beaming” smile.

“There had been serious and heated debate as to whether the Queen should be subjected to the risk of negotiating the notorious Bulli Pass,” Mr Chamberlain‘s memoir continued.

“Many cars would overheat on the pass at that time. The royal vehicle on its return up Bulli Pass boiled.

“Two drivers in their smart black uniforms with red piping and gold insignia came into the hot water section of the kiosk.

“As soon as I got a chance I asked my father-in-law David Morgans ‘Were they the drivers of the royal car?’ He replied ” Yes ,and I got a deposit off them too.”

Mrs Chamberlain, who was born four years after the Queen, recalled the “pomp and ceremony” surrounding Her Majesty which left ”everyone excited” to catch a glimpse of her.

The proud monarchist admitted she has “shed a few tears” since the news broke and wished King Charles III the best with his new impossible job.

“Goodness knows what‘s next (for the Royal Family),” she said.

“I don‘t think anyone could fill the Queen’s shoes, but I am hoping he (King Charles) does a good job.”

Judy Buik was just 12 years old when Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited Wagga on their 1954 Royal Tour.

Ms Buik was born in Wagga and has lived in the town for 50 years of her life.

She is 81 years old today – a longstanding member of the Wagga and Districts Historical Society – but she still remembers startling details of the day Her Majesty visited Wagga.

The students of Wagga assembled in Bolton Park, wearing red white and blue crepe paper over their uniforms – organised into a Union Jack flag.

It was a sweltering 40 degree day, and she was part of the human Union Jack, wearing white over her uniform and singing to The Queen as she passed.

Even though she only glimpsed her briefly, Ms Buik said she was struck with how “absolutely beautiful” the young monarch was.

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s 1954 visit to Wagga Wagga

“It was very exciting for us when she came past in a jeep with Prince Phillip.

The Queen had come straight from the airport to begin her tour of the Riverina, spending 145 minutes in Wagga in the dry summer heat.

Ms Buik, who was 12 years old at the time, remembered that she had a green umbrella held above her to shade her from the dry Victorian heat.

“She must have been absolutely exhausted, poor thing,” she said. “I don’t think she would have been excited, but we certainly were.”

“Most of us would never see the queen again, but we did that day.”

Ms Buik had just started her first year at Wagga High when she witnessed the queen’s visit, and was wearing her best uniform.

The crowd that gathered in Bolton Park was so large, that Ms Buik’s five year old sister got lost trying to catch a glimpse of the Queen.

During her reign Queen Elizabeth II visited Canberra 14 times between 1954 and 2011.

One Canberra landmark she frequently visited was St John’s Anglican Church in Reid — one of the oldest churches in the Nation’s Capital.

Retired Reverend Paul Black was the rector of St John’s during the time of the Queen’s last Australian tour in October 2011.

“It was an absolutely glorious day weatherwise,” he said as he reflected on Queen Elizabeth’s visit. “Her car pulled up and I shook her hand, and the hand of the Duke of Edinburgh and I walked with her right down to the door of the church”

“She chatted the whole way.”

Click on the arrows to revisit the Queen in Canberra in 1954

Reverend Black officiated the church service on the day of her visit.

“I’m a boy from the bush, born and bred in Rockhampton,” he said. “I never would have thought I would have the honour to be conducting the service and actually meeting the queen in that context.”

“(The Queen was) so open, so engaging, so warm,” He said.

“It was a huge occasion, with many hundreds of people outside.

“She put me at ease.

“She was a woman who has been concerned about those less fortunate.”

The late Queen visited the north coast of New South Wales twice - once in 1954 as part of her first tour to the antipodes, and again in 1970 as part of bicentenary celebrations.

The 1970 Royal tour was in connection with the bicentenary anniversary of James Cook’s 1770 voyage up the east coast of Australia, and saw the Queen and Prince Philip, as well as Princess Anne and the Prince of Wales received by large, warm crowds across the country.

Upon HMY Britannia, they sailed from Hobart up the east coast, arriving in Coffs Harbour on 11 April 1970 to fine weather after recent storms.

John Wait, 78, Commodore of the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club, remembers both tours.

“In 1954, the whole of Coffs Harbour Primary were taken to Casino on the train at 6AM to catch a glimpse of her down by the river park there - it was a full day event, we didn’t get back until 8 at night”

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s 1970 visit to Coffs Harbour

“In 1970, I took my three kids up to the quarry and watched HMY Britannia sail in, it was the best vantage point in Coffs. It must be the last big ship that’s sailed into Coffs Harbour”

“I don’t think kids would walk that far these days”

After a morning meeting with local representatives and civic organisations at the Civic Centre, lunch was taken at Bruxner Park with a timber felling for entertainment.

The Queen and Prince Philip were then hosted by the Coffs Harbour Surf Lifesaving Club for a Royal Surf Carnival, attended by 35,000 people.

HMY Britannia departed Coffs Harbour that evening for Brisbane.

The Royal tour continued on throughout Queensland, stopping in Mount Isa, Longreach, Townsville, Cairns, before returning back down the coast and concluding on the 3rd of May in Sydney after the Queen opened the international terminal at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport.

Queen Elizabeth II was somewhat well acquainted with Parramatta.

On April 30, 1970, Her Majesty officially opened the Old Government House museum, in the grounds of Parramatta Park, after the National Trust had restored the stately Georgian house, which is the oldest public building in Australia.

Sixteen years later, appropriately clad in a yellow dress, she was the guest of honour to christen Parramatta Stadium on March 5, 1986, the season the Eels claimed their last premiership.

Her Majesty was part of an electric atmosphere from fans relishing their own stadium five years after they torched Cumberland Oval to mark their maiden premiership against Newtown in 1981.

The Queen simply stated: “I have much pleasure in declaring Parramatta Stadium open.”

A day before, Eels great Peter Wynn met her Majesty at a state reception for the Australian Kangaroos rugby league squad at the Sheraton Wentworth Hotel and was flabbergasted by how well she researched her impending visit on the Eels turf.

Wynn was at the event with fellow players on Tuesday, March 4, 1986.

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s 1970 visit to Parramatta

“The next thing, the door opens and in walks the Queen with Prince Philip behind her,’’ Wynn said.

“I couldn’t believe it and she walked over to me and it gave me the opportunity to say to her ‘You’re opening our stadium’.’’

Her reply left Wynn floored. “Do you play for the Parramatta Eels?’’

She went on to ask if the ground had been used before and when Wynn confirmed it was new, she was delighted because “I often get asked to open things that have been used before’’.

“For her to say to me ‘Do you play for the Parramatta Eels, it shows how particular, how well prepared she was,’’ Wynn said from his hospital bed where he is recovering from a knee reconstruction.

“For her to say that, that blew my head off my shoulders. That was quite outstanding.

“It was a moment in time that you never forget.’’

Wynn, also impressed with the “impeccably dressed” Queen, also witnessed some more of how well-versed and prepared she was when she met fellow Kangaroo Michael O’Connor, who reminded the Queen that he had already met her at Buckingham Palace in 1978.

“She said ‘Oh, were you in the Australian Schoolboys team?’,’’ Wynn recalled.

While the 1970 visit was the first time the Queen officially spent time in Parramatta, the community caught its first glimpse of the monarch during her inaugural tour of Australia in 1954 when the Royal Train travelled from Bathurst to Sydney, waving to crowds from the observation deck when they passed through Parramatta.

In 1988, Queen Elizabeth II elevated Parramatta’s position of mayor to Lord Mayor to mark the city’s bicentenary. Parramatta is one of just four councils in NSW with a Lord Mayor.

On Friday, the HMAS Parramatta Freedom of Entry Parade was cancelled out of respect for Her Majesty.

“The City of Parramatta and the Australian Defence Force are postponing the event and provide a new date once confirmed,’’ a Parramatta Council spokeswoman said.

“Flags across the City of Parramatta will be flown at half-mast in honour of Her Late Majesty.’’

Parramatta Lord Mayor Donna Davis said: “We mourn the passing of Her Majesty. It is also a time for the people of our city to offer thanks for a lifetime of public duty and dedicated service.’’

The northern beaches received a relatively fleeting, but wildly popular, visit from Queen Elizabeth, and her daughter Princess Anne, when she was in Sydney in 1970.

On a bright Saturday morning on May 2 crowds lined Allambie Rd — from Manly Vale to Allambie Heights — and South Steyne at Manly to catch a glimpse of the monarch in the back of her Rolls Royce as she travelled between engagements.

The Queen and Princess Anne spent 40 minutes at what was then called The Spastic Centre — now called the Cerebral palsy Alliance — at Allambie Heights. The pair were hosted by the centre’s co-founder Neil McLeod.

They were taken into the facility’s business arm, then called Centre Industries (now named Packforce), where people with a disability were given paid packing and assembly work alongside able-bodied workers.

Workers were asked to come to the centre for Saturday morning work so the Royals could see the factory in operation. Bouquets were presented to the Queen and Princess Anne by Jenny McLeod and Betty Rowe, two disabled employees.

“The Queen spent about 40 minutes chatting to employees and engaging in their work,” a spokeswoman said.

“Centre Industries opened in 1961. It was an innovative business venture that, for the first time, moved away from the sheltered workshop model to an open, competitive operation where people with a disability worked alongside able-bodied people.”

The biggest crowd of the Queen’s visit to the Beaches gathered along Wentworth St and South Steyne for her arrival at the Royal Far West Hospital at Manly, which provides health care and support for kids, and their families, from regional and outback NSW.

Click on the arrows to scroll through the Queen’s 1970 visit to the Northern Beaches

In those days the facility was called the Far West Children’s Health Scheme, but the “Royal” was added after the monarch’s visit.

The Queen, wearing a pale blue and cinnamon coat and a helmet-type hat in off-white and cinnamon. was given a bouquet of flowers by Christine Healey, 9, from Balladoran. Princess Anne’s bouquet was presented by seven-year-old Kaylene Kennedy, an orthopaedic patient.

Queen Elizabeth visited two wards of the hospital and the children’s dining-room as well as the speech therapy department. Princess Anne visited two other wards and a nursery.

“At Royal Far West, we’re proud of our royal connection and for the interest and recognition of the Queen which culminated in us being awarded the prefix ‘Royal’, granted in recognition of the unique, longstanding services we provide for country children,” a spokeswoman said.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of (her) passing.

“The Queen showed considerable interest over the years in the work we do to support the health and wellbeing of country children and families.”

After the visit, the Royals were driven to Manly Wharf, through cheering crowds, where they boarded a launch to rejoin the Royal yacht Britannia at Circular Quay.

The jewel of Sydney’s crown was opened by the actual-crown wearer when Queen Elizabeth II travelled to the city to open the Opera House in October 1973.

“I think the opening of the Opera House is a really significant moment in Sydney’s and Australia’s history,” City of Sydney historian Lisa Murray said.

“The opening of the Sydney Opera House really brought Sydney into the international stage, in terms of both facilities and cultural events.”

Opened alongside then state premier Sir Robert Askin, thousands descended onto the steps of the new concert hall to see the queen open a building that would define the city for years to come.

Check out the opening of the Opera House in our gallery below

Queen Elizabeth II would arrive at Mascot Airport, now Kingsford Smith, before playing a part in a momentous day for the city.

“It also brought Sydney into the 20th century in terms of architecture, so having the queen there to open it was a very significant moment.,” Ms Murray said

“There was so much hype, and there was a lottery to help fund it, so everyone felt as if they were contributing to the construction of this extraordinary venue.

“Having the Queen there to open the building was a really big deal and a defining moment for Sydney.”