QUEEN Elizabeth II is being remembered by the people of Newcastle as a "powerful women" who was committed to her duties until the end.
Having heard about the Queen's death early Friday morning, 73-year-old Alexander Vodopianoff told the Newcastle Herald later that day the monarch had been a constant figure throughout his entire life.
"She was too good to be true sometimes. She was fantastic," Mr Vodopianoff said.
Mr Vodopianoff and his wife Heather have lived in Lake Macquarie for more than 50 years. While neither of them remember meeting the Queen, Ms Vodopianoff said her mother would often talk about how "amazing" it had been to travel from Narromine and see the monarch on one of her many visits.
Ms Vodopianoff praised the Queen for being "sharp until the very end".
I looked at her just the other day, standing there doing her last official duty. Seeing one Prime Minister out and a new one in," Ms Vodopianoff said.
"She has never put a foot out of place."
While she hadn't spoken with her UK grandparents about the death, 22-year-old University of Newcastle student Esme Piper said they would be "shell-shocked".
"They have a million tea towels of her," Ms Piper said.
"She was a bit of an idol in a way. Everybody looked up to her because she reigned for a long time and was a pretty powerful woman."
However, Ms Piper said, the royal attachment in Australia seems to be fading.
"I talk about the royals with my family in the UK and that's about it," she said.
"Definitely not with people around here like my friends. It's not something we get excited about."
Adam Liss from Macquarie Hills, whose parents immigrated to Australia from Poland, said that despite not being a monarchist, he doesn't want to see Australia move away from the royal family.
"Even with my parents the Queen was like a godhead but to modern people the royal family isn't anything special. A lot of people see them just as a pompous family living far away," Mr Liss said.
"I still believe there is a underswell of traditionalists out there that think 'why fix something that isn't broken'. That's the camp I sit in."
The 56-year-old said Queen Elizabeth II was all he'd ever known.
"We've always sung god save the Queen and I've never sung anything different," he said.
"The history that she has been part of and lived through, she's always been there. It's a pretty amazing achievement."
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