Received

Stephanie Gilmore's record-breaking eighth world title was destiny - with even a cherry tomato telling her she would produce a giant-killing run in the WSL Finals.

The Australian surfing star made history on Thursday at California's Lower Trestles break, beating world No.1 and five-time world champion Carissa Moore in the title decider.

Gilmore was in tears as she hugged Moore immediately after winning her eighth world title, one more than compatriot Layne Beachley.

The 34-year-old did it the hard way on finals day, winning four rounds back-to-back as the fifth seed in the top-five format.

She knocked out Brisa Hennessy, Tatiana Weston-Webb and Johanne Defay, before beating defending champion Moore 2-0 in their dream best-of-three championship decider.

Given the against-the-odds nature of the title win, Gilmore described it as the best of her eight world crowns.

"This is the greatest event of my life, the greatest achievement of my career," Gilmore said.

"It was just a wild day. It was almost ridiculous to think it was possible

"I visualised this so much and I was like 'let's do this'.

"Let's just prove this whole system wrong - you can come from the bottom, come from fifth and win a world title. That's friggin' cool."

Gilmore also revealed the universe had given her a series of signs leading up to the WSL Finals that reassured her that she could win.

"It was funny, I just kept seeing a lot of eights around. Even in vegetables and in my salad I was seeing eights," Gilmore said.

"I had a cherry tomato that was two cherry tomatoes stuck together by one core, and it was an eight.

"And then when I sliced it in half it was an eight. It was pretty cool.

"Today is the eighth in America. I have two eights on my jersey. There were a lot of signs pointing towards that."

Gilmore paid tribute to Australian surfing legend and her good friend Beachley, who has now been officially pipped as the greatest female surfer of all time.

"She's an amazing woman," Gilmore said.

"It was such an honour to share the seven record with her, but I knew eventually I could make the eight and make it happen.

"It's really cool to have the support of Laine. She paved the way for us.

"She showed us that you can win six in a row. Kelly (Slater) didn't even do that.

"She's a really strong character, and I appreciate what she's done for women's surfing and female athletes around the world.

"It was a true honour today to be able to surpass that seven and make the eight. I hope I did her proud."

Making Gilmore's triumph even more special was the way she was able to claw her way back from a COVID-plagued start to the season.

At risk of missing the mid-season cut, Gilmore pulled off a series of big results to stay in the title race and eventually sneak into fifth spot.

Gilmore sung the praises of Moore, calling her "the real world champ" this season.

"She really is the greatest of all time, in my opinion," Gilmore said.

"I disliked this format ... the world championship should be crowned in all the different waves.

"Now I love it."

Gilmore's day nearly ended in her opening match - she made a shaky start against Costa Rican Hennessy.

Judges then called a crucial block against Hennessy, giving Gilmore priority, and she took out the match with her last wave score, inside the final minute.

She then came from behind as well to beat Weston-Webb of Brazil, but was building momentum in the tricky conditions and was too good for Defay of France, to set up the decider against Hawaii's Moore.

In the men's final, Brazilian Filipe Toledo won his first world title, beating compatriot Italo Ferreira 2-0 in the decider.

Ferreira beat Australians Ethan Ewing and Jack Robinson on Thursday on the way to the decider.

© AAP 2022

HOW AUSTRALIA WILL OBSERVE THE QUEEN'S DEATH

FRIDAY

* The governor-general announced the death of Her Majesty The Queen, following advice from Buckingham Palace.

* The prime minister issued a public statement on television and suspended parliament.

* A gun salute will take place at Parliament House in Canberra at dusk to mark the Queen's death. It will consist of one round for each year of The Queen's life at 10 second intervals.

* The governor-general will address the nation at 6.55pm AEST.

WEEKEND

* A proclamation ceremony will be held at Parliament House in Canberra. This event is open to the public, subject to public health restrictions in force at the time.

* The governor-general will read the proclamation on the forecourt of Parliament House and this will be followed by a 21-gun salute.

* In Australia, there will not be an official mourning period.

* The Australian national flag should be flown at half-mast until after the day of the funeral in the UK. Direction will be provided to raise the flag for the proclamation.

* The sails of the Sydney Opera House will be illuminated until midnight on Friday and Saturday evening.

* Condolence books have been made available at Parliament House and Government House in Canberra. Books of condolence will also be open at Government Houses in each state. Online condolence forms have also been created on the governor-general and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet websites.

* In Canberra, floral tributes may be left at the forecourt of Parliament House and Government House. Each state and territory has made arrangements for floral tributes. The royal family have noted that instead, Australians may wish to consider making a donation to a charity of their choice.

TO BE DETERMINED

* The funeral of Her Majesty The Queen will be held at Westminster Abbey attended by Australian representatives.

* A national memorial service will be held following the return of the prime minister and governor-general from London.

* States and territories may hold additional memorial services.

* A national day of mourning will be declared by the prime minister, coinciding with the national memorial service. One minute's silence will be observed at 11am.

* Condolence motions will be given in both the House of Representatives and the Senate on their next respective sitting days following the national memorial service.

* The Australian Mint has plans to mint new coins featuring King Charles from 2023 but there is no word yet on notes.

© AAP 2022

Australian coins of the future are likely to feature the head of King Charles III facing the opposite way to his late mother's.

But they will circulate alongside each other in a sort of mother-and-son currency double act.

A west-facing Charles III would continue a royal tradition, said to have started under Charles II from 1660, where the the new monarch faces the opposite direction to their predecessor in their profile portrait on coins.

Since her coronation in 1953, six likenesses of Queen Elizabeth II have appeared on the obverse side of Australian coins, the last of them struck in 2018 and all facing right.

The only exception to the "about face" convention was the coinage of Edward VIII, who insisted on his profile facing left.

"It is not clear whether this was an expression of rebellion against convention, or vanity, to show what he regarded as his better profile, containing his hair parting," according to John Richardson, of Britain's Open University.

"It was nevertheless determined that designs for the coinage of George VI, his successor, should be prepared as if that of Edward VIII had ... depicted him facing right, thus reinstating the original tradition."

Those involved in the lengthy and complex processes of producing Australia's currency won't say how quickly the image of King Charles might appear.

But coins and the $5 note bearing his mother's image won't vanish overnight.

While the Australian Mint produces the nation's coins, responsibility for all aspects of the production and issue of Australian banknotes rests with the Reserve Bank of Australia.

And it's clear that as far as the $5 note is concerned, we will have a choice for some time between a new Charles III and a late Elizabeth II.

"The monarch has traditionally appeared on the lowest denomination of Australian banknotes and it is our expectation that this would continue should there be a change in the monarch," a spokeswoman for the RBA said.

The Queen made the transition to decimal currency in 1966, when she first graced the now-discontinued $1 paper note, and has long featured on the $5 polymer note.

"All Australian banknotes issued from 1913 retain their legal tender status," the RBA spokeswoman said.

If Charles III does appear on notes any time soon, it's a fair bet the planning started many moons ago because making money costs a lot of money - and time.

The RBA's latest suite of polymer notes - called the NGB (Next Generation of Banknotes) program - took 10 years and $37 million to complete, ending with the $100 bill in 2020.

The notes, mainly introduced to stymie counterfeiters, are printed in Melbourne by the RBA's wholly-owned subsidiary Note Printing Australia, and undergo no fewer than 13 production processes.

New $5 notes featuring King Charles' head will also likely continue to bear some of the complex security traits of existing notes, including 3D and moving imagery, a tactile feature for the visually-impaired, colour changes, micro-printed lines from the constitution and fluorescence under UV light.

Coins are the responsibility of the Treasurer, under the 1965 Currency Act, and manufactured by the Royal Australian Mint. It has produced more than 15 billion coins since being opened by the new monarch's late father, Prince Philip, in 1965.

Australia won't be the only nation in the Commonwealth facing the prospect of introducing new designs on its coins and notes.

Queen Elizabeth II has appeared on the currency of more than 30 countries, the first being Canada's $20 note in 1935, when she was only nine years old.

She is still likely to be in circulation somewhere, a century later, and well after her death which was announced on Friday at the age of 96.

© AAP 2022