A royal respected by republicans

"Even republicans like myself can be, and in my case are, very strong Elizabethans," Malcolm Turnbull, one of the founders of the Australian Republican Movement, said in 2017 when he, as prime minister, had just met the then 91-year-old Queen who was the Australian head of state, albeit with powers devolved to the Governor-General.

The measure of Mr Turnbull's respect was that he knew that the republican cause would fail in a referendum during the Queen's reign. The necessary public support simply wasn't there because of the widespread respect for the monarch.

"No politician, no prime minister or opposition leader or premier, can make Australia a republic. Only the Australian people can do that through a referendum," he said at an Australia Day citizenship ceremony in Canberra.

Mr Turnbull felt that the Queen embodied "selfless public service, dignity, wisdom and leadership for longer and more magnificently than anyone alive today".

Those words - particularly "public service" and "dignity" - keep recurring in assessments of her. The word "duty" is often repeated, too.

In 2012, on her Diamond Jubilee, to celebrate 60 years on the throne, she said: "In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighbourliness."

She seemed to embody those solid, quiet virtues at the heart of the best of Australia: "service", "friendship", "neighbourliness", "family" - and even the tribulations of family came to seem like a mark of how her problems were common to many.

And she has been constant. From the collapse in wool prices which led to severe Depression in the 20s, through war and the revolutions in our daily lives from the 60s on, she has been with us - had been with us, rather: it is still hard to accept her passing.

From Robert Menzies on, she saw prime ministers in and she saw them out again. They came and went but she remained solid.

She met 12 presidents of the United States, from Harry Truman in 1951 when she was still a princess to Joe Biden in 2021. George H.W. Bush took Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game. Ronald Reagan probably had a better sense of her taste when he went riding with her in Windsor. She was given her first pony at the age of four and only gave up riding at the age of 95.

By all accounts, horse racing was her great sporting passion. There are stories of her erupting in passion as races came to a tight conclusion.

And yet in those seven decades of public appearance, there was not a noticeable gaffe. There have been no leaks of private embarrassments. No tittle-tattle about her secret opinions. She played it straight, keeping her views to herself.

She has been a brilliant non-politician politician, performing her role as Head of State without a murmur or hint of discord.

In her life-time of turmoil and change, she found a way of moving with the times without making waves.

Over the decades, deference became no longer automatic. The emergence of television, tabloid newspapers and then social media, took away the mystique of monarchy but she adapted, allowing television in to broadcast her Christmas message, for example. She had an official social media account before any of her grandchildren.

She let some light in without destroying mystique. The magic on which monarchy depends remained.

The world she inherited at her coronation in 1952 was utterly male dominated, so she may have changed perceptions of how women could have authority. Pictures at official functions, with rows of men dressed in similar dark suits, were suddenly broken up by a dignified woman who invariably dressed in style, with colour and panache.

She knew how to appear in public, seeming accessible and friendly while retaining that dignified aloofness a monarch needs. Her work-rate remained formidable. Even as she approached her 90s, she carried out an engagement virtually every day. In 2015, she made 35 international visits.

"For many in Australia, particularly older women, they will have a continuing sense of admiration for the Queen," the historian Cindy McCreery of Sydney University, said.

"It dates to that first visit to Australia in 1954 when three-quarters of the population lined the streets to see her in person. Many will remember that moment."

Dr McCreery conceded that this strength of bond with Queen Elizabeth may not be as strong for younger Australians. All the same, the Queen had "served as a beacon of service and duty and quiet dignity".

On the Queen's 21st birthday in 1947, she said: "I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service".

She was true to her word.