The Palace dismissed as "in bad taste" suggestions that the queen's visit to Australia last October was probably the last time she would make the journey Down Under in her life.

Since then, her husband Prince Philip, 90, has required emergency heart surgery, but officials insist he will be at the queen's side in a jubilee tour starting in March, although in a nod to their age it is confined to Britain.

The younger royals will fan out across the globe in her place.

The main diamond jubilee festivities have been scheduled over four days on June 2-5, in the hope of fine weather, with a special national holiday declared.

The queen will hope one of her horses can finally win the Epsom Derby on June 2.

The following day, it is hoped millions will gather for the "Big Lunch", a mass garden party around the country.

The queen will sail up the Thames, whose banks will be lined by crowds, in what the organisers hope will be the centrepiece of the jubilee.

On Monday, June 4, 2,012 beacons will be lit on high ground across Britain and the Commonwealth, before a service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

At Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee celebrations in 1897, a banner in the crowd proclaimed her "Queen of earthly queens". Royal commentator Robert Jobson says Elizabeth II can now claim that title.

"In many ways, whenever you mention the words 'the queen', everyone immediately thinks of Queen Elizabeth.

"She's effectively, if you like, the queen of the world. She's not only the queen of Great Britain, she's the queen of many other Commonwealth realms, as well as being the head of the Commonwealth of 53 nations.

"So whenever you say the word 'The Queen', it is this international figure."