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A mourner in Sydney has recalled the Queen's words that "grief is the price that we pay for love" as he attended St Andrews Cathedral to watch a live telecast of her funeral in London.

The cathedral, along with Government House in Canberra and Federation Square in Melbourne were among venues that hosted viewings on Monday night.

The cathedral held solemn choral hymns for 90 minutes before the funeral, which was projected onto a large screen inside.

"My mother is English, so I guess we're part of a royalist family, with that allegiance," Matt Palmer told AAP as he arrived at the service.

After watching royal weddings at home, Mr Palmer said he wanted to farewell the Queen at St Andrew's as a way of paying tribute to her faith

"I've been crying for the last 10 days, and I'll cry tonight as well," mourner Simon Perdriau said.

"As Elizabeth herself said, grief is the price that we pay for love."

Mourner Michelle Raft said the Sydney cathedral was a fitting place to farewell the Queen, who visited the church in 1954.

"I like the idea that she's been here and that we'll honour her together," Ms Raft said.

Melbourne's landmarks will remain lit until a national memorial service on Thursday, with bagpipes sounding in Perth in the late monarch's honour.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is among more than 2000 people attending the funeral in London, along with the governor-general and a small delegation of Australians.

Mr Albanese wore a suit by M.J. Bale, while his partner Jodie Haydon wore a dress by Karen Gee and a hat by Jane Lambert.

He was among the estimated crowd of 750,000 people who viewed Queen Elizabeth's coffin in Westminster Hall ahead of her state funeral.

The funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey at 8pm AEST before a committal service is held at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

The service will be led by the Dean of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle, with British Prime Minister Liz Truss reading the second lesson and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivering the sermon.

The Last Post will be sounded as the service comes to a close, followed by a two-minute silence and the Reveille.

The Sovereign's Piper of the Royal Regiment of Scotland will play Sleep Dearie Sleep as the coffin and processions leave the church.

Ahead of the event, Mr Albanese met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday before holding a lunch with Australia's community champions at Australia House in London.

He also met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace along with his counterparts from the 14 Commonwealth realms as well as Ms Truss in Kent on Saturday.

The prime minister described his meeting with the King as warm and friendly, saying it provided him a moment to personally offer his condolences.

"It's a very personal bereavement that he's feeling," Mr Albanese told the BBC.

Australians will be able to pay their respects on Thursday during the memorial service to be broadcast across the nation from Parliament House.

All state and territory leaders, as well as justices of the High Court, will attend the service, with Australians given a public holiday to mark the occasion.

Mr Albanese said he and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would give short tributes to the late monarch.

© AAP 2022

The Queen is being laid to rest at a state funeral that has drawn presidents, princes and prime ministers and up to a million people lining London streets to say goodbye to a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age.

A day packed with funeral events in London and Windsor began early when the doors of 900-year-old Westminster Hall were closed to mourners after hundreds of thousands had filed past her flag-draped coffin.

Many had waited for hours in line, including through cold nights, to pay their respects in an outpouring of collective grief and respect.

"I felt like I had to come and pay my final respects to our majestic queen. She has done so much for us and just a little thank you really from the people," said Tracy Dobson, who was among the last to join the line.

In a country known for pomp and pageantry, the first state funeral since Winston Churchill's promised to be a spectacular display.

More than 140 Royal Navy sailors are pulling the gun carriage carrying Elizabeth's coffin to Westminster Abbey, where 2000 people ranging from world leaders to health care workers and volunteers plan to mourn her.

Ahead of the ceremony, one of the Abbey's bells is tolling 96 times -- once a minute for each year of her life.

Monday has been declared a public holiday in honour of Elizabeth, who died on September 8. Long before the service was set to begin, city authorities said viewing areas along the route of the funeral's procession were full.

Millions more are expected to tune into the funeral live on television, and crowds are flocking to parks and public spaces across the UK to watch it on screens.

The royals attending the service will include the Queen's great-grandchildren George and Charlotte.

On the evening before, King Charles III issued a message of thanks to people in the UK and around the world, saying he and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, have been "moved beyond measure" by the large numbers of people who have turned out to pay their respects to the Queen.

"As we all prepare to say our last farewell, I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those countless people who have been such a support and comfort to my family and myself in this time of grief," he said.

Following the funeral in the medieval abbey where Elizabeth was married and crowned, her coffin -- ringed by units of the armed forces in dress uniforms and members of her family -- will be brought through the capital's streets to Wellington Arch near Hyde Park.

There, it will be placed in a hearse to be driven to Windsor Castle -- where Elizabeth spent much of her time -- for another procession before a committal service in St. George's Chapel. She will be laid to rest with her late husband, Prince Philip, at a private family service.

US President Joe Biden was among leaders to pay their respects at the Queen's coffin on Sunday as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the funeral.

Mourners started arriving to take their seats about three hours ahead of the ceremony, and Biden entered the Abbey about an hour before it began.

Jilly Fitzgerald, who was in Windsor, said there was a sense of community among the mourners as they prepared to wait hours to see procession carrying the Queen's coffin.

"It's good to be with all the people who are all feeling the same. It's like a big family because everyone feels that ... the Queen was part of their family," she said.

© AP 2022

King Charles and other senior British royals have followed Queen Elizabeth's coffin into Westminster Abbey, joining world leaders and monarchs to bid farewell to a beloved figure who unified the nation through her 70-year reign.

In scenes of inimitable pageantry, pall bearers carried her flag-draped casket along the aisle in the country's first state funeral since 1965, when Winston Churchill was afforded the honour.

Tens of thousands of people lined the streets as the Queen's casket made the short journey from Westminster Hall where she had been lying-in-state, pulled along on a gun carriage by 142 sailors with arms linked. A bell tolled and bagpipes skirled.

Pin-drop silence fell over London's Hyde Park nearby as thousands of people, who for hours had picnicked and chatted, went quiet the second the Queen's coffin appeared on screens erected for the occasion.

Shortly before, hundreds of armed personnel in full ceremonial dress had marched past in a historic display of kilts, bearskin hats, scarlet tunics and bands in white gloves.

Inside the abbey, lines of scripture were set to music that has been used at every state funeral since the early 18th century. Among those walking behind the casket was her great-grandson and future king, 9-year-old Prince George.

The 2,000-strong congregation included some 500 world leaders and foreign royal families, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Among them also was US President Joe Biden, who paid tribute to a 96-year-old who earned respect for her sense of duty and represented a constant as Britain's role in the world diminished and changed.

"You were fortunate to have had her for 70 years," Biden said. "We all were."

Among the crowds who came from around Britain and beyond, people were climbing lampposts and standing on barriers and ladders to catch a glimpse of the royal procession - one of the largest of its kind in modern history in the capital.

Millions more will watch on television at home on a public holiday declared for the occasion. The funeral of a British monarch has never been televised before

Along the Mall, one of London's grand ceremonial boulevards, the crowd stood 15-20 people deep in places.

Alistair Campbell Binnings, 64, said he left his home in Norfolk at midnight to make his way to London.

"This is a one-off. We would only be here for the queen. We just felt we had to be here. She was what we always needed in a time of crisis," he said.

Elizabeth died on September 8 at her Scottish summer home, Balmoral Castle.

Her health had been in decline, and for months the monarch who had carried out hundreds of official engagements well into her 90s had withdrawn from public life.

The 40th sovereign in a line that traces its lineage back to 1066, Elizabeth came to the throne in 1952, Britain's first post-imperial monarch.

She oversaw her nation trying to carve out a new place in the world, and she was instrumental in the emergence of the Commonwealth of Nations, now a grouping comprising 56 countries.

"Queen Elizabeth II was without any shadow of a doubt the best known figure in the world, the most photographed person in history, the most recognisable person," historian Anthony Seldon told Reuters.

Transport chiefs said one million people were expected in central London for the funeral, while police say it will be the biggest security operation ever in the capital.

The funeral will end with the Last Post trumpet salute before the church and the nation falls silent for two minutes.

Afterwards, the coffin will be brought through central London, past the Queen's Buckingham Palace home to the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner.

From there, it will be placed on a hearse to be driven to Windsor Castle, west of London, for a service at St. George's Chapel.

The coffin will then be lowered into the royal vault as the Sovereign's Piper plays a lament.

Later in the evening, in a private family service, the coffin of Elizabeth and her husband of more than seven decades Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99, will be buried together at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, where her parents and sister, Princess Margaret, also rest.

© AP 2022