Surely there were suitable desks at Yarralumla?

But the staff of Sydney Green Interiors had arranged to lend a French-style desk in his absence. He has cared for it ever since.

Her Majesty would use the desk to sign one of the most significant pieces of legislation in the changing relationship between the monarch and Australia.

Now, Mr Green would like to see the desk enter the Parliament House collection and be permanently displayed so Australians can see where an important piece of legislation in the history of the country's constitutional monarchy was signed.

So far, Mr Green said, his efforts to entrust the desk to the Australian people have been rebuffed.

Signed with a Parker fountain pen at Government House on October 19, 1973, the Royal Style and Titles Act made Queen Elizabeth the Queen of Australia.

Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam told a parliamentary luncheon the day before the Queen had been "gracious enough to say how gladly she welcomed the suggestion for the change in her title".

"The new title expressly, directly, clearly the role of the monarch in Australia," Whitlam said.

Whitlam had sought to get rid of "by the Grace of God", the "United Kingdom", "Defender of the Faith" and "the Second" in the Queen's title. There was no previous Queen Elizabeth of Australia.

However, correspondence has since revealed the Queen insisted on keeping "by the Grace of God" and "the Second", due to political sensitivities with Scotland.

She signed the legislation on the same visit to the country when she opened the Sydney Opera House. Her full Australian title became: "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth".

Mr Green said a woman came into his Kennedy Street shop the afternoon of the signing and wanted to buy the desk, before it had even been returned. Perhaps she had been at Government House and had heard about where it came from? But it was not for sale.

In 1980, Mr Green received a letter from the Department of Home Affairs to enquire whether he still had the desk.

"I am sure you would agree that this table is of national historical significance and would be an appropriate addition to the national collection for eventual display in the Museum of Australia," the letter sent on behalf of the department's secretary said.

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Mr Green said that had prompted his wish for it to be held on behalf of the public.

"We didn't need to sell it. We'd rather give it to the people of Australia, where it's open and can go into Parliament House and go around and see all the prime ministers and so forth - photos and that," Mr Green said.

"I would like to see it go there. But how we get it there, I don't know."

Mr Green said he had discussed the desk with Christie's, the auction house, where it would be sold from his estate if it cannot be donated.

Attempts to donate it to Old Parliament House and the National Museum of Australia were rejected, Mr Green said.

He did not want the desk to be held at Government House, which is seldom open to the public.

Mr Green said Old Parliament House only accepted the building's original furniture, while the National Museum rejected it.