Queen's perennial pride in Australia

But Australians always nurtured a sneaking suspicion that they were the Queen's best-loved children, certainly outside her native Britain.

Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday aged 96, became the first reigning monarch to visit Australian shores in 1954, just months after her coronation.

Her ties Down Under were long and strong; her grandfather opened Australia's first parliament in Melbourne in 1901.

She made the long-haul journey no fewer than 16 times in her 70-year reign.

She had sufficient faith in Britain's former colony to send her eldest son and successor, Charles, to school here.

And she maintained an unflagging affection in the hearts of Aussies, even at the height of the unsuccessful republican push in the 1990s to jettison her as head of state.

Malcolm Turnbull, who led the republican movement before becoming prime minister years later, summed it up: "She has been an extraordinary head of state and I think, frankly, in Australia there are more Elizabethans than there are monarchists."

She handled the republican debate with tact and dignity after being told boldly (and wrongly, as it turned out) by then-prime minister Paul Keating at Balmoral Castle in 1993 that her days as Queen of Australia were numbered.

She employed the same diplomacy to remain above the decades-long controversy over the 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government by her representative as governor-general, Sir John Kerr.

She could have been forgiven for feeling wary of Australia when, as a fresh-faced slip of a monarch, her royal barge pulled into Farm Cove, Sydney, on her inaugural visit on February 3, 1954. After all, the nation's first royal visitor, Prince Alfred, had been shot and wounded at a picnic in Sydney's Clontarf in 1868 by an Irishman called Henry O'Farrell.

But her debut in the Antipodes set the tone for a lifetime to follow, generating a public adulation at times bordering on hysteria. Practically everyone welcomed her; she was greeted by an estimated seven million Australians out of a population of nearly nine million.

Her marathon two-month visit, in long white gloves and decorated hat in the searing heat, was chock-a-block with Australiana. She watched a cricket Test in Adelaide, horse races at Royal Randwick and Flemington, tennis at Kooyong and a surf carnival at Bondi.

She saw Aboriginal people demonstrate boomerang throwing in Wagga Wagga, Torres Strait Islanders perform a ritual war dance, and in Broken Hill she spoke to isolated families via the Royal Flying Doctor Service radio.

When she visited Parliament House in Canberra in 1963, the seasoned Robert Menzies - then well into his record 18 years as prime minister - was soon giddily reciting 17th century poetry: "I did but see her passing by. And yet I love her till I die."

In 1970, she and Prince Philip joined in the celebrations marking Lieutenant James Cook's voyage to Australia 200 years earlier.

She returned to open the Sydney Opera House in 1973 and Parliament House in Canberra in 1974 but had to abandon that trip to return to Britain when a snap election was called. She was back three years later, visiting every state to mark her Silver Jubilee.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh toured Australia again in 1980 and in 1981, to coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Melbourne. In 1982 they attended the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.

In 1988 the Queen took part in Australia's bicentenary celebrations and opened the new Parliament House in Canberra.

The regal mystique of earlier times, however, seemed to have faded by her 1992 trip.

Paul Keating was dubbed the "Lizard of Oz" by Fleet Street for breaching protocol by touching the Queen's back as he lightly guided her at an informal reception, where his hatless and gloveless wife Annita declined to curtsy.

But the republic foreshadowed by Mr Keating never became a reality in her reign.

Elizabeth could scarcely have handled the failed 1999 referendum with greater equanimity, visiting Australia four months later to say: "I have always made it clear that the future of the monarchy in Australia is an issue for you, the Australian people, and you alone to decide by democratic and constitutional means. It should not be otherwise. My family and I would, of course, have retained our deep affection for Australia ... whatever the outcome."

Ordinary Australians reserved a special place in their hearts for the Queen. Sydney man Jim Frecklington spent years in a Manly workshop building her a gold-plated state carriage for her diamond jubilee; his labour of love carried her to the opening of parliament in London in 2014.

Australia's leaders harboured a similar respect, no matter what stripe their political colours or preferred flag.

John Howard called her a woman of "remarkable commitment to duty" and fellow Liberal Tony Abbott said that for more than six decades she had been "a presence in our national story".

Labor's Bob Hawke spoke of the affection with which she was regarded by the Australian people.

Mr Keating sounded positively adolescent when he said: "I like the Queen ... and I think she liked me."

Kevin Rudd said: "The Queen has been the Queen ever since I was born. She is part of the firmament of Australia's national life."

Julia Gillard correctly predicted: "Your journey of service will continue all the length of your days."

The feeling was mutual, from the moment the then 27-year-old monarch arrived in Sydney on board the SS Gothic and said: "I am proud indeed to be at the head of a nation that has achieved so much."

She observed at a 2006 dinner at Parliament House in Canberra: "Australia in the course of my lifetime has firmly established itself amongst the most respected nations of the world."

Australia changed almost beyond recognition during the second Elizabethan age. The nation's defence interests turned to the US and economic future to Asia. Advance Australia Fair replaced God Save The Queen as the national anthem. There were no more legal appeals to the Privy Council in London. The old imperial currency was ditched for decimal, and the old cultural cringe went along with it.

During the Queen's reign, 15 Australian prime ministers came and went.

Her 70 years as monarch covered more than half of Australia's history since Federation.

During what proved to be her final visit in 2011, she said: "I have watched Australia grow and develop at an extraordinary rate. This country has made dramatic progress economically, in social, scientific and industrial endeavours and, above all, in self-confidence."

They were the sort of remarks a proud mother might make about her child's journey to adulthood.

The Queen has been one constant for all Australians alive today.

Republic or no republic, it won't seem the same without her.

Australian Associated Press