The quest turned misses into models, teens into TV stars and drew crowds sometimes numbering thousands. Onlookers would flock to beaches from north Queensland to the border to watch the state's "best sorts" parade before the judging panel.

Jam a Sun Girl or two into the back seat of a Falcon convertible and the male-only public bars would empty – no mean feat in those thirsty years.

It was serious stuff. Consternation took over the old Queen St thoroughfare for the 1959 Australia Day parade when the latest Sun Girl lost her sash. Motorcycle police were called up to dash the sash into the city for tearful 19-year-old Nancy Knudsen.

And there was more than the sash and the glory if you were crowned Miss Sun Girl. "I won a Zephyr car, £100 wardrobe, modelling course, makeup and other prizes," recalls Knudsen, now a travel industry executive in Sydney.

The Indooroopilly state school teacher was quickly snapped up by Channel 7 for its opening broadcast in 1959 and overnight became Brisbane's "It" girl.

"Our big worry was looking good in a one-piece swimsuit – no bikinis, mind you – and trying to be as natural as possible wearing make-up, earrings and high heels to the beach before a thousand spectators," Knudsen said.

Winning the 1959 Sun Girl contest really started something. Executives from The Sunday Mail pressed Knudsen to contest the 1959 Miss Queensland contest. Sponsored by Nundah Rotary, Knudsen romped home.

"I was happy just to be a schoolteacher and appear in Little Theatre," she said. Instead, the "It" girl won a Logie in 1960 and did her acting stints as the femme fatale in Seven's Theatre Royal skits with the late George Wallace.