We are a country of "Elizabethans", then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull declared on the 25th anniversary of the Australian Republic Movement.
The man who led the failed 1999 referendum to break away from the monarchy conceded to a room of its fiercest opponents that their cause would be on hold until the end of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
"The vast majority of Australians have known no other head of state than the Queen," Mr Turnbull told the crowd in the Great Hall of Sydney University in 2016.
"She is so admired and respected that few of us can say — whether monarchists or republicans — that we are not Elizabethans."
Australia's dependence on the British monarchy has waned over time.
The overall national "Yes" vote in favour of a republic in 1999 was 45.13 per cent, slightly higher than the 2014 Scottish independence referendum's "Yes" figure.
Neither vote got up.
The former southern colony's connection with Queen Elizabeth II has held firm ever since she became the first reigning monarch to set foot on Australian soil on February 3, 1954.
At least 1 million people, more than half of Sydney's population, turned up to watch the new Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, travel through the city and suburbs at the start of their royal tour.
Crowds followed the young couple wherever they went, sometimes with perilous consequences.
Paramedics had to treat 180 people after a 70,000-strong mob broke through police lines to catch a glimpse of the Queen as she arrived for a state banquet at a restaurant inside the David Jones department store in Sydney's Elizabeth Street.
When she attended the Tivoli Theatre for a concert, more than 60 people, including children, fainted in a crowd of 30,000 people.
Elizabeth was not the first royal to visit Australia. Her father and mother toured as the Duke and Duchess of York in 1927, representing King George V, Elizabeth's grandfather.
Her first visit to Australia would have been as a princess in 1952 in her father's stead.
But when George VI died while his daughter was in Kenya, the remainder of the trip was cancelled.
When she finally arrived in Sydney Harbour, she did so as Queen "of Australia" — a change of title passed by the House of Representatives to replace the ambiguity of "the British Dominions beyond the seas".
The much-anticipated trip spanned 57 cities and towns over 58 days.
And it paid in dividends, with then-prime minister Robert Menzies quoting a 17th century poet during a reception at Old Parliament House in Canberra:
"I did but see her passing by. And yet I love her till I die."
Australians were spellbound by the "fairytale" Queen, and newspapers breathlessly reported that the 27-year-old was warm, beautiful, witty and charming.
It would be almost a decade before she returned to Australia in 1963, for a shorter five-week tour that included Alice Springs and the new South Australian town of Elizabeth, which had been named in her honour.
About 17,000 people turned out to see their home's namesake. It was reported 500 people, mostly children, had to be treated by paramedics for heat exhaustion, fainting and nose bleeds.
Australians would always show up in large numbers when the Queen visited.
When she opened the Sydney Opera House during her fourth visit in 1973, an estimated 1 million people were there to see her.
But subsequent tours failed to capture the magic of her debut.
The dismissal of prime minister Gough Whitlam by the Queen's representative Sir John Kerr in 1975 fuelled the republican movement just as the Queen's Silver Jubilee tour marked her 25 years on the throne.
Australia's sense of self separate to Britain grew.
In 1977 the country voted resoundingly to replace God Save the Queen as the national anthem with Advance Australia Fair.
The Queen continued to play an important role in key milestones for Australia.
She opened the High Court building in Canberra in 1980, attended the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Australia in 1981, and closed the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.
Still, in 1986, prime minister Bob Hawke watched on as the Queen signed the Australia Act to make the nation's laws independent of Britain's and relinquish British interference in Australian government.
The 1990s would prove a challenging decade for the monarchy as Princess Diana — who captivated Australians during her visit in 1988 — divorced Prince Charles, heir to the throne, and revealed his long-running affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
Her sudden death in 1997 further damaged the reputation of the royal family, who were perceived as unfeeling in the days after.
Yet two years later, when asked whether Australia should become a republic, the people said no.
The referendum needed a double majority — both a national majority of votes, and a majority in at least four of the six states — to change the Constitution.
It failed, with the ACT the only jurisdiction to record a majority in favour of becoming a republic.
A year later the Queen visited Australia in a subdued tour that focused on the regions, where the "No" vote had been strongest, rather than the cities.
Her next trip in 2002 was overshadowed by the scandal engulfing governor-general Peter Hollingworth, who was heavily criticised over claims he covered up child sex abuse allegations when he was the Archbishop of Brisbane.
By 2006, as she approached her 80th birthday, the Queen was opening the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
More than 80,000 people sang Happy Birthday to her in the MCG.
Her 16th and final visit to Australia was in 2011, and coincided with CHOGM in Perth.
On a side visit to Brisbane, she travelled along the river on a ferry and was cheered by thousands of people.
While old age prevented her from travelling to Australia again, the Queen's presence continued to be felt, sometimes in unanticipated ways.
In 2015 prime minister Tony Abbott, the spokesman for the monarchist cause during the referendum, brought back dames and knights on Australia Day and promptly knighted the Queen's husband Prince Philip in his absence.
When Mr Abbott was toppled by Mr Turnbull later that year, the Queen's portrait was removed from the prime minister's office.
Mr Turnbull's successor Scott Morrison put it back up.
