The Queen and Me: Canberrans' close encounters with the monarch

Canberra mum Sharryn Clayton faced such a predicament in 2011 when she took her then two-year-old son William to the War Memorial on a rainy day to see Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during what turned out to be the royal couple's last visit to the national capital.

"There I was, holding my three-month-old daughter in one arm, flowers in another and watching helplessly as my usually angelic son, who was supposed to hand Her Majesty the flowers, was busy bending the laws of physics with his body and making it known that he was not happy with the wait," Clayton recalls in the new exhibition The Queen and Me.

"I passed the flowers to the Queen like it was a hot potato to free my hand to attempt to settle him. The Queen nodded at my squirming child and stated, 'He's a spirited one'. I grimaced and said 'My apologies your Majesty. It's nap time'.

"She gave me a commiserating look and said 'Good luck' before she moved on. It was an interaction that barely lasted one minute but felt like it was playing out in slow motion and felt much longer."

Her story is just one of many funny, poignant, heartwarming and sweet anecdotes collected by the National Capital Authority for the new exhibition, The Queen and Me, about Canberrans' close encounters with Queen Elizabeth II to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee this year.

It's being called "the people's exhibition", The Queen and Me showcasing the remembrances of Australians on meeting or seeing the Queen in person.

As well as memories that shed perhaps a different, more intimate light on the monarch, and the fortitude that has steeled her 70-year reign, the exhibition includes archival footage and photographs as well as memorabilia including a souvenir map from 1954 which highlighted where residents could see the Queen as she visited Canberra during her triumphant first tour of Australia.

The map, now nearly 70-years-old itself, shows Canberra as little more than a collection of sheep paddocks, with now inner-south Narrabundah the southern most suburb of the still-young city.

Prime Minister and Cabinet has also lent the exhibition the royal standard flag for the Queen which is flown when she is in Australia. Also on display is the original wooden clavier of the National Carillon, the eye drawn from it, across the lake to Aspen Island which in June will be renamed Queen Elizabeth II Island as another tribute to her 70 years on the throne.

William, meanwhile, now 12-and-a-half and in year 7 at the University of Canberra High School in Kaleen, has contributed the little raincoat and gumboots he was wearing that drizzly day when he met the Queen, to go on display.

And, remarkably, he does have some memory of that day.

"He told me he remembered I gave him a flag and that I had quite a few of them in the old pram and he said, 'I remember waving it and it breaking and you giving me another one'. And I did, I gave him about four of them because he was waving them so viciously," Clayton says, with a laugh.

Looking back now, she's glad she went to see the Queen, toddler tantrum and all.

"I'm not really pro-royal or anti-royal, it is what it is. I just thought it was a nice moment in history," she says.

National Capital Authority manager of attractions Roslyn Hull curated The Queen and Me, the authority earlier this year calling for submissions from the public. Stories have flooded in.

Perhaps because Canberrans have had plenty of opportunities to see the monarch. Queen Elizabeth II has visited Canberra 14 times over the years, her final visit in 2011, with one of the most memorable images her and Prince Philip sailing on a navy barge up Lake Burley Griffin to visit Floriade.

"There have been 16 royal visits to Australia and all but two have been to Canberra," Hull says

The responses from the community ranged from Mary Stuart's memories of serving the Queen afternoon tea at the royal race meeting at Thoroughbred Park in 1988 to then seven-year-old Curtis Rose attracting the Queen's attention with his handmade crown at Fairbairn in 2011.

"It is about the Queen but it is about the perception of the Queen by her subjects," Hull says of the exhibition.

Chrissie Standen, then Chrissie O'Brien, remembers meeting the Queen in 1992 at the National Film and Sound Archives where she worked as a video editor and preservation specialist for 33 years.

"My boss at the time of Operation Newsreel, Annice Vass, suggested I edit a compilation of all the royal visits I could find and give them to the Queen as a gift," Standen recalls in the exhibition.

"I spent four months in 1991 editing this footage, including repair of the 35mm film reels, which I am very proud of."

The staff were informed the Queen would be delighted to accept the video, which would be presented to her at Parliament House on February 24, 1992. With Standen in attendance, of course.

"I was so excited, extremely nervous, 38 and a single mum of four. What would I wear?," she recalls.

"My employer gave me $500 to buy an outfit, as you have to be dressed accordingly when you meet royalty. How lucky was I? Also my girlfriend was a hairdresser. My kids helped me practice my curtsy, I was so nervous.

"The day finally came, we lined up with other guests in the foyer of Parliament House as the Queen was introduced to us. She came to me, we shook hands, she asked me was her father in the video, I said, 'Yes'. She answered, 'Thank you'.

"I was overwhelmed that she spoke to me, she smelt beautiful and I was surprised she was smaller than me as I'm only five foot."

Hull says it's a common reaction from people who did meet the Queen - a mixture of awe, but also the startling realisation she was also human.

"There is the story of another little girl chosen to give flowers to the Queen and she practised curtsying and she told her mum afterwards, 'Mum, it was like talking to your grandma. She was so tiny and soft'," Hull says.

"It's interesting. There seems to be a theme in the responses of 'It felt like [the encounter] went on a lot longer than it did'.

"There also seems to be this feeling of it being a great honour to actually meet the Queen or give her flowers or anything like that. And the other part was just realising she is a real person - that was just a gob-smacking moment for people."

There is a lot of humour and goodwill in the exhibition.

"One of my favourite stories is the day the motorcade was driving down Parkes Way during one royal visit and people were coming out of Russell to see it," Hull says.

"And this guy missed the traffic light to go across the road, so all the rest of his office was across the other side and he was standing there by himself and the police said, 'You can't go across anymore because it's coming through'.

"So he stood there by himself and he was waving and the Queen saw him and she waved back and then she nudged Princess Anne and she turned and waved at him as well. So he had this marvellous moment of just himself and the royals."

So how does Hull reconcile this love for the Queen among Canberrans with the nation capital's strong support for a republic? (In the 1999 republic referendum, the ACT had the highest "yes" vote in the nation.)

"I think it's the singer, not the song, I would suggest," she says.

"Queen Elizabeth, in and of herself, has demonstrated a resilience and leadership that's naturally impressive. And she has, in her reign, brought British monarchy into the 20^th century, at the very least. You know, so many African republics received their independence as a result of her agreeing to that. She's modernised the monarchy to a certain extent.

"She's also owned mistakes she's made and I think that demonstrates a humanity that people are impressed with."

The Reverend Paul Black also contributed to the exhibition, meeting the Queen in 2011 as rector of St John's Anglican Church in Reid. He was the officiant and preacher at a church service which was attended by The Queen and His Royal Highness during that tour.

"As a boy growing up in central Queensland, I never thought I would have the opportunity of meeting and talking to the Queen. It was a highlight of my professional career as an Anglican priest," he says.

Even 11 years later, Black is still effusive about the meeting. As a kid he used to attend the Saturday afternoon movies and everyone would stand when God Save the Queen was played beforehand. As a young backpacker, he stood at the gates of Buckingham Palace looking in. He never imagined he would one day officiate a service with the Queen in the congregation.

"I knew she was coming to St John's probably two months before they came but it was top secret and it was only announced two or three days beforehand that she was coming to St John's to worship," he says.

"The Prime Minister's department suggested it would be nice if there was a girls' choir there. So I rang the principal of Girls Grammar School and said, 'The Queen is coming to St John's and is there any possibility some of the girls could sing in the choir?'

"Apparently, because worship was on a Sunday, the girls weren't happy about having to do something on a Sunday but I'm told when they found out it was the Queen, there were no problems. They were very, very happy."

On the walk into the church, the Queen talked about planting trees with Black as some had recently been planted in the churchyard.

"There were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting outside and every now and then she would give the royal wave and the crowd would cheer and shout," Black says.

After the service, Black remembers being harangued by a journalist asking him about the Queen's butter yellow dress.

"I said, 'The Queen's dress?'. And she said, 'Yes, it was the same dress she wore to William and Kate's wedding'. I'll always remember that."

Hull says putting The Queen and Me together has been "wonderful fun".

The free exhibition is at the National Exhibition Building at Regatta Point, opening on Thursday. The rooms will include treatments to evoke the ceremonial arches erected in cities across Australia for royal visits, especially during the Queen's 1954 tour.

"Every time a motorcade went down a street, there was an arch over it," Ms Hull says.

And there will be a chance to contribute your own memories at the exhibition.

"We're going to have postcards so if people want to tell us an encounter with the Queen, they can add it to that board, so it will be like a vox pop," Hull says.

There will also be children's activities during the July school holidays, including a chance to make your own crown and be queen for a day.