[The King with His Prime Ministers 1926 (left to right): Walter Stanley Monroe (Newfoundland), Gordon Coates (New Zealand), Stanley Bruce (Australia), J. B. M. Hertzog (Union of South Africa), W.T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State). Seated: Stanley Baldwin (United Kingdom), King George V, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada).]

The Crown is Australia’s oldest legal and constitutional institution.

Introduced with the settlement in 1788, it remains at the centre of our constitutional system. 

From 1926, as a result of decisions taken at an Imperial Conference of Prime Ministers in London, the single Imperial British Crown began to divide into the Australian, Canadian,  New Zealand , British and other Crowns of other Realms. (Realm comes from an old French word which means a  kingdom.)

Each Realm has long been fully independent. Each one recognizes The Queen as its Sovereign, or Monarch.