Ms Senior, who was born in Canberra and returned to live about 15 years ago, was honoured for "for service to the visual arts through costume design", six decades of work in Australian theatre, film and television.

"It's a bit weird," Ms Senior, 80, said of receiving the honour.

Nominated for an Oscar for her work on My Brilliant Career (1979), based on the book by Miles Franklin, Ms Senior won Australian Film Institute Awards for that film and for Breaker Morant (1980), a Boer War military courtroom drama.

After several years of working in Sydney theatre, her first "wardrobe" credit on a film was for Age of Consent (1969), starring James Mason ("an absolutely brilliant gentleman") and Helen Mirren.

Her career coincided with the renaissance of Australian film and she worked on many major films and mini-series.

Among her many other film credits are The Getting of Wisdom (1977), The Odd Angry Shot (1979) and Phar Lap (1983).

Her TV credits include Sara Dane (1982) and For the Term of His Natural Life (1983).

"Period films have been a speciality," Ms Senior, 80, said.

"I did costume design at East Sydney Tech and specialised in that sort of thing - patterns from all different periods."

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She was lecturer and adviser on costume design at the National Film and Sound Archives.

"I like redoing things - I'm an op shop buyer."

For the past three decades she has worked - often unpaid - with Canberra theatre companies including Canberra Philharmonic Society and Canberra Repertory Society.

She designed the costumes for Rep's current production of Arsenic and Old Lace.