Australia's rowing women's eight has the chance to be the Cinderella story of the London Olympics after earning qualification in Switzerland.

Unloved, unwanted. Not anymore.

Australia's women's eight has a shot at becoming one of the feel-good stories of the London Olympics following their last-gasp qualification in Switzerland.

Less than two months after being thrown together, the self-proclaimed "motley crew" of rejects and misfits stormed to victory ahead of fancied rivals Germany at the final qualification regatta in Lucerne on Tuesday.

"If we win gold (at the Olympics), ring Hollywood," said a euphoric Sally Kehoe between screams and squeals of celebration from crewmates.

"If we were able to win a medal that would be a dream come true for us," added the member of the Beijing crew.

Following the disastrous results at the Athens Olympics (Sally Robbins' no-row saga) and again at the Beijing Games (last in the final), the big boat was put out of commission.

However pressure from women's sports groups and female rowers saw Rowing Australia perform a backflip in late March.

That U-turn could prove to be a masterstroke after the hastily-arranged crew of coxswain Liz Patrick, stroke Phoebe Stanley, Kehoe, Robyn Selby-Smith, Sarah Cook, Hannah Vermeersch, Alex Hagan, Tess Gerrand and Renee Chatterton proved such a hit at its first competition.

Australia's women's eight has never collected an Olympic medal since the event's introduction in 1976.

But Kehoe said crew members were fired up to prove their worth after missing out on selection for other pre-qualified crews.

"I think Australians love being an underdog," she said.

"It unites us. It drives us. We don't like people telling us what we can't do."

This year's Olympic rowing venue is Eton Dorney, just west of London, which is owned by the elite Eton College.

Kehoe said her crew wouldn't carry huge expectations into the Games but would do their best to "put as many boats behind us as possible".

"We know that anything can happen," she said.

"Eton is a windy course and crazy things can happen."

Kehoe said the crew's limited amount of time together meant the rowers couldn't afford to "stuff around".

"We have only had six or seven weeks to prepare and we have done a lot more in that time than I have done for any other international crew," she said.

"We knew our season could end today."

The result in Switzerland has forced a welcome change to the crew's travel plans.

Instead of flying home they will now stay in Lucerne to gain much-needed race experience at the World Cup regatta the weekend before heading to the European Training Centre in northern Italy to prepare for the Games.

Coach Nick Garratt paid tribute to his crew.

"The whole squad readily accepted the challenges and in some ways the short campaign helped instil a sense of urgency in everything we did," he said.

"It was a great performance and hopefully will be an inspirational result for all women rowers in Australia."

The heats at the Olympics for the women's eight will be on July 29 with the medals decided on August 2.