Actress Miriam Margolyes was a hit at the Australia Day citizenship ceremony in Canberra on Saturday.
Margolyes, who voiced Fly the dog in Babe, an Australian movie, and was in two Harry Potter movies, said she fell in love with Australia when she first visited from Britain in the 1960s.
"I knew it was special when I met Katerina Manning-Clark's family and later I met Germaine Greer and Clive James when I was at university," she said after making her citizenship pledge in the capital.
"They were the most glamorous, mesmerising people I had ever met and the most intelligent and I thought all Australians would be like that.
"Perhaps that's not quite the case but most of them are."
Asked what brought her to Australia, she said: "I fell in love with an Australian woman. And I knew I had to be here."
''By the way, in case anyone didn't know I was a dyke and I'm very happy and we've been together since 1968," said Margolyes, who now lives in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Later, Maroglyes was asked what does she like about Australia?
"The main thing is a lack of class," she said. "I don't like class distinction and there's too much of that in England.
"There's an energy here - an optimism, a vitality. I think England doesn't have that anymore."
AAP reports she also said the Australian way appealed to her nature.
"There's an irony and not accepting bulls**t and I love that, that straight-talking stuff," she said.
