Waking up around four o'clock this morning, I couldn't go back to sleep, and so I turned on the radio, only to hear the shocking news that our Queen Elizabeth II had died.
Every nation needs a Head of State, and our Queen Elizabeth II was the most impeccable of them all. A rock in a very unsteady world, she had been part of all our lives, including mine after I had sworn my Oath of Allegiance on the 9th of December 1971 in the jungles of New Guinea.
When the young Queen Elizabeth II visited the Australian Parliament House in 1963, the then Prime Minister Menzies expressed his admiration for her by quoting lines from English poet Thomas Ford’s poem 'There is a Lady Sweet and Kind': "I did but see her passing by, And yet I love her till I die." It seemed to sound so corny then, but it sounds so right now!
