Quentin Bryce has been a ground-breaker all her career.
She was one of the first women accepted to the Queensland bar, the first woman appointed to the University of Queensland law school faculty and a pioneer in opposing sex discrimination and promoting equal opportunity.
But late in her career, as Australia's first female governor-general, the 71-year-old mother of five has made her mark.
Bryce's five years as the Queen's representative in Australia ends this week with a series of formal events and the swearing in of her replacement, General Peter Cosgrove, on Friday.
When she was appointed to the role in 2008 Bryce promised to be "alive, open, responsive and faithful to the contemporary thinking of Australian society".
But in doing so she said she would undertake it "with solemnity, impartiality, energy and a profound love for the country we share".
The statistics of her term are impressive.
The governor-general has visited 250 locations across Australia, with one-third of her time spent in rural, regional and remote communities.
Some places had never received a vice-regal visit - Antarctica, the Pilbara and King Island, for example.
More than 250,000 people have visited the two official residences in Sydney and Canberra, as she made Government House and Admiralty House the venues for picnics and charity events.
Charities were a particular focus, as the governor-general took on 325 patronages.
Embracing the internet, the governor-general's website - which published the 830 speeches she has made - receives two million views a month.
But beyond the statistics, her official secretary Stephen Brady says he was most impressed by the way in which Bryce interacted with people from all walks of life.
He cites the urban outreach programs in capital cities providing support to the marginalised, the vulnerable and the socially excluded, as well as the many visits to areas hit by natural disaster.
Bryce - as the constitutional commander-in-chief of Australia's armed forces - took a keen interest in military affairs, becoming the first Australian senior official to undertake an overnight visit to troops at the Tarin Kowt base in Afghanistan.
She accompanied war veterans to Hellfire Pass and represented Australia at significant commemorations including the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day in Verdun, the 95th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, the reinterment of the unknown soldier in Fromelles and the 65th anniversary of the Sandakan death marches, and she made the first vice-regal visit to the Long Tan Cross in Vietnam.
On the global stage, Bryce led an indigenous delegation to Canada and was the first governor-general to head a business delegation to the European Union.
She took prominent Australian women scientists to Shanghai and visited almost all the island states in the South Pacific, addressing a number of Pacific parliaments.
The extent of her overseas trips - coming at a time when Australia was lobbying for a United Nations Security Council seat - was criticised in some quarters for politicising the role and engaging in foreign policy debate.
Her occasional entry into public debate on issues such as gay marriage and the republic have been criticised in conservative quarters.
She notably said in the 2013 Boyer Lecture she wanted to see an Australia where "people are free to love and marry whom they choose" and where "one young girl or boy may even grow up to be our nation's first head of state".
While such criticism is par for the course for any high-profile leader, Bryce leaves the role as a respected and even revered public figure.
Brady revealed to a Senate committee recently a letter that captured the personal mark Australia's 25th governor-general made on the office.
"Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do," the letter read.
"I can't help feeling that when we look back we will all acknowledge that this was the moment in time when we understood that we all sleep under the same stars, a moment in time where everyone was included, a moment where dignity and respect was and always will be at the heart of change."
