No photos and no media reports were allowed, which left The Courier with only a golden invitation and special memories of a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.
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Former Courier editor Angela Carey fondly reflected on how momentous that cup of tea and prawn toast in Victoria's Central Highlands was more than two decades later following the Queen's death, aged 96.
The invitation had arrived via a "surreal" phone call and Ms Carey said nothing was going to stop her taking up the offer.
Ms Carey, then The Courier's deputy editor, had been chasing up whispers for months that the Queen might visit Ballarat on a planned royal tour in early 2000.
The Courier finally broke the news the royal was considering a Ballarat stop on the visit in a weekend Christmas edition.
Ms Carey said she kept hounding the protocol office for more details then suddenly found herself invited for a select media event at Admiralty House, the Governor-General's Sydney residence.
"She was as you would expect her to be - just like everyone's nanna," Ms Carey said.
"She was the expert at making small talk and we had the Olympics coming up in Sydney.
"All the talk at the time was how much the Queen was enjoying her visit to Australia.
"This was coming off the horrible 1990s decade for the Royal Family."
Among a predominantly male audience for the Queen, female media representatives were told they could choose whether they wanted to curtsy or not (males could opt to bow). Otherwise, all that was required for the meeting was a polite handshake.
When it came to her moment, Ms Carey found herself carrying out "an awkward combination of both" - a curtsy with a handshake.
"I would practice if ever it were to happen again - not that that's likely now," Ms Carey said.
"We had all been ushered into a formal reception. I was standing at the back of the room until we were asked to walk in - I didn't really know anyone - and I was doing a bit of mingling.
"We were asked to turn around and suddenly I was at the front of the room, asked to hand over my name card and found I was first to be shown in to meet her.
"She was so welcoming. She made everyone feel comfortable in that space.
"After today, that is such a special moment - it is one I've always held as a special memory."
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Ms Carey was later "caught up in the moment" when the Queen and Prince Philip visited Ballarat on Friday, March 24, 2000.
She made sure her two eldest children, both aged under five at the time, found a spot to wave at the royals when they drove through Mount Helen.
From that moment they could always say they, too, had seen the Queen.
Corgis in a lather with gift from Sovereign Hill
Despite Queen Elizabeth II making 11 visits to Ballarat, few locals can claim to getting close to Her Majesty, let alone meeting her.
However, Kerryn Morcombe was able to do exactly that when the Queen, along with Prince Philip, made a trip to Sovereign Hill on March 24, 2000.
Ms Morcombe, was 34 and pregnant with her first child at the time, when Her Majesty entered into the Clarke Brothers Grocers store at the open-air museum depicting Ballarat during the 1850s goldrush.
"I got to interact with her and give her some dog soap for the corgis and flypaper for the palace and some Reckitt's Blue to whiten her sheets and I just had a lovely chat with her," Ms Morcombe said.
"I guess I didn't realise at the time how lucky and how privileged I was to meet her.
"She thanked me and said she was having a lovely time in Australia and everyone was so welcoming."
Ms Morcombe said her encounter with the Queen was so spellbinding she could not even recall how she greeted the former monarch.
"I couldn't get over the vibrancy of her clothes - the colours in her clothes and to me her skin was like porcelain," she said.
"I just kept looking and thinking 'wow,' I am so lucky to have met someone as remarkable as her. I was just blown away."
Janelle Burns was graced with the Queen's presence during her visit to Sovereign Hill.
"I got a quick glimpse of her and it was just so exciting," Ms Burns recalled.
"I was working as a casual worker at the time and I was in my period costume and I was standing on the Main Street watching her come in.
"It's something I never expected would happen."
