Jan Hugo had been on the plane for 30 hours before landing in London with an empty suitcase, having no idea what was about to happen to her.
Her luggage had to be empty to make space for all of the royal memorabilia from the Coronation of Charles III that will join the thousands of other pieces she has collected over the years, which now fill her Nulkaba home.
Mrs Hugo and her husband, Dave, were on The Mall Saturday morning among the throngs outside the gates of Buckingham Palace as the world watched the first British royal coronation in 70 years.
And it was Jan who was plucked from the crowd to appear on a live television broadcast sent all over the globe.
Her suitcase was already full, she told reporters, and she had sent three more boxes home to add to the fourth sent from the Palace.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," she said, "I don't even know how to describe it."
Across town, James Benson has woken early and taken the new navy-blue morning suit from the wardrobe of his Central London home.
A downpour on Friday afternoon had him thinking of the east-coast lows that used to roll over Adamstown Heights where he had grown up and he wondered if his mother was right when she phoned and told him he should arrange a cab to the Abbey.
It was barely a 20-minute walk, and there was a sense of excitement as the decorations went up and the tourists camped outside the cathedral to catch a glimpse of the night-time rehearsals.
Mr Benson fixed the gold kangaroo stick-pin to his lapel - a small touch of home - and decided to risk the weather. He had come to London to take an eight-week job almost 20 years earlier after graduating from the Univeristy of Newcastle and practicing as speech pathologist in Sydney.
The Kotara High School alum now leads the NHS in Kensington and Chelsea, and oversees a community health network that covers 11 boroughs and Hartfordshire. He is responsible for around 4500 medical staff treating as many as 11,000 patients a day.
He arrived at the Abbey early and when the pomp and ceremony was over, in Australian style, he had plans to fire up the barbecue with friends to celebrate
