Once upon a time, when knights were bold and dames existed in life as well as in pantomime, Australia's honours system was more or less on lease - lock, stock and double-barrelled names - from the motherland. Honour boards, letterheads and annual reports were festooned with post-nominal OBEs, CBEs and the prized dames and knights, which meant one could preface one's moniker with Dame or Sir.

Those were the days when such titles were treated seriously, not only by those who received them but by a society then more attuned to Britain - as if the intervening 20,000 kilometres of foreign lands and oceans were no wider than the English Channel.

Illustration: John Spooner.

The value of calling someone, say, Dame Fanny or Sir Marmaduke was quite special, as well as conveying automatic indication of their social worth. One didn't quite bow or curtsy, but one did put the slightest emphasis on the words Dame or Sir.

These days, one must say these words a little louder, as most of the surviving dames and knights are getting on.