Oh what a horrible moronic feature the drop down auto-suggestions are!

Default for preference choice is set to 'on'. Default should be 'off' so we can choose [or not] to use the preferences we choose.

If you set your browser to dump cookies, this action also dumps the google preferences cookie which retains your preferences. If you don't dump cookies, your preferences with reset to default with any new session! Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

I've searched the web. and the only way the to disable this annoying little beast, besides changing to a different browser, is to go tools and replace google.com [or google .com.au] with:
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0

What you then get is a google search page without the annoying auto-suggest feature but you do loose the 'search in Aust. only' feature. I can live with that!