Boyle was given a huge ovation by the crowd of 35,000 as she made a lap of honour after winning the last individual race of her career at the age of 31. It was her seventh Commonwealth Games gold medal.

"It's not the high point of my career but it's a great way to go out," said Boyle, who had carried the baton at the Games' Opening Ceremony.

"I won't be going on - there's no point."

Boyle, who became the first Australian woman to carry the flag at the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony at Montreal 1976, is one of her nation's all-time great athletes and her fun-loving, anti-establishment attitude made her one of Australia's most popular sportswomen.

Her well publicised battles against cancer have only added to her popularity throughout the 21st century.

Boyle never won an Olympic gold but given her record of three silvers, and what the world now knows about state-sponsored doping in East Germany, she is widely regarded as the best "clean" female sprinter of the 1970s.

When she was named Australia's 39th "Legend of Sport" in 2017, Boyle became the first woman to win that honour without having won Olympic gold.

"I saw the ugly side of sport, we all see it all the time," she said at the time. "I don't want to see the ugliness of cheating. Good, honest performances are the most important thing."

She also learned a lot from sport to help her through difficult times in her later life.

Over a period of 20 years Boyle was twice diagnosed with ovarian cancer and once with breast cancer. Throughout that time she travelled the country to raise both money and awareness to help others with cancer.

"A lot of stuff I learned as an athlete has helped," she said. "There have been hard times and you have to deal with it, which is easier said than done.

"Depression comes into play and all sorts of stuff, but you get through it. And you find yourself in a position to do a lot of good for people."

Boyle was only 16 when she won the first of her Olympic silver medals at Mexico City in 1968, over 200m. The great Jesse Owens was watching and said: "I have not seen a girl so beautifully balanced."

The renowned Australian sports writer Harry Gordon summed up Boyle's personality in 2004 when he wrote: "Balanced she was on the track, but there were some rough edges to the youthful Raelene - some of them uncannily reminiscent of the early Dawn Fraser (the great swimmer who was often in trouble with the authorities).

"As a little girl, she hated wearing dresses, loved beating up boys, knocked around with her brothers…and swiftly learned to swear with flair. She was a natural non-conformist with a stubborn streak, and she quickly developed an aversion to over-zealous administrators."

Boyle might have won even more Commonwealth Games golds but for an injury that forced her to withdraw from the Edmonton 1978 Games after she had finished second in the 100m.

She missed the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games, withdrawing from the team under pressure as the Australian Government tried to impose a boycott.

Her international career seemed all but over but she set herself the target of going out with a farewell victory in Brisbane, and went up to 400m for the first time to do it. She did it in style.