Queen Elizabeth wore a pale blue silk dress, white open-toed sling-back shoes, white gloves, a three-strand pearl necklace and pearl earrings when she stood on the steps of City Hall for a civic reception during her first visit to Newcastle in 1954.
"Frock took the eye," the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate reported breathlessly in a headline as part of its 14-page broadsheet coverage of the event.
As ever, the queen's wardrobe was a source of fascination for the media and the public.
"In three-and-a-half crowded hours yesterday Queen Elizabeth captivated Newcastle," the Herald declared the day after the 27-year-old monarch toured the city in drizzling rain.
Police estimated 250,000 to 300,000 people saw Her Majesty and Prince Philip during the flying visit, which started when they stepped off the train at Newcastle Railway Station and took in No.1 Sportsground, Newcastle Showground and the steelworks.
"Familiar with her lovely features from studying hundreds of photographs, Press pictures and films, they expressed an oft-repeated saying: 'She is more beautiful than her pictures show,'" the Herald gushed in its page-one report on February 10.
"From the station through the streets to the City Hall the cheers rolled from section to section as the Royal car proceeded on its way."
Television footage from 1954 shows huge crowds along King Street, people scrambling across the flowerbeds in Christie Park next to City Hall to keep up with the "royal progress" and Elizabeth positioned alarmingly close to a working BHP blast furnace.
So close she reportedly left rubbing "grit" from her eyes.
The Herald reported 44,000 schoolchildren waving red, white and blue flags gave the royal couple a "rousing welcome" at the showground.
An estimated 25,000 people waited in the rain at Gosford to see the royal couple, but their train did not stop.
The queen, a "small, dainty figure with a captivating smile", had been crowned two years earlier.
Elizabeth visited Australia 16 times during her 70-year reign, including stops in Newcastle in 1954, 1970, 1977 and 1988. She was the first reigning monarch to visit the city.
The queen, Prince Charles and Princess Anne visited Australia in 1970 to commemorate Captain James Cook's landing 200 years earlier, bringing with them an entourage of 51 chefs, footmen, maids in waiting, equerries, police officers, dressers, hairdressers, yeomen, pages, valets, secretaries and dining room assistants.
Her Majesty stopped in Newcastle to open the International Sports Centre, now McDonald Jones Stadium, and visit the State Dockyard. She and the Duke of Edinburgh boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia after spending three hours in the city.
The queen opened Newcastle Regional Art Gallery and greeted thousands of fans in Civic Park in a one-hour visit during her silver jubilee in 1977.
In 1988, she marked Australia's bicentenary by officially opening Foreshore Park, Queens Wharf and Newcastle Regional Museum at the west end of Hunter Street.
