The Queen has made her audience laugh after cracking a joke about a new statue unveiled in her honour.

Her Majesty spoke to South Australian Premier Steven Marshall, Governor Hieu Van Le and sculptor Robert Hannaford to view the statue that has been installed in the grounds of the government house in Adelaide.

Video footage of the conversation released by Buckingham Palace shows that the sudden unveiling surprised the Queen, who made a quick joke.

After seeing the statue so suddenly, she joked that “it must be quite alarming to suddenly see it out of the window - you’d think, gracious, has she arrived unexpectedly!”

She was also presented with a scale model of the statue, which she thanked the sculptor for and said "I'm glad it's not quite as big as the original statue!".

A palace statement said Her Majesty was also “briefed by the Governor and Premier on developments in the region, including the vaccination rollout to key workers, the response to Covid-19 and the lifting of restrictions in South Australia.

“The Queen also heard from the Governor about the recovery from drought and bushfires in the area at the start of 2020, and from the Premier about how cooperation between health services, police, government - and the resilience of the Australian people - has been instrumental in their frontline response to the pandemic."