Alpine skiing star Melissa Perrine has carried Australia's flag into the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics closing ceremony as the country celebrated its best Games in 16 years.
All 15 of Australia's team marked the end of a campaign in which it finished 15th with four medals as the South Korean region passed hosting duties to Beijing.
Dual bronze medallist Perrine beat Simon Patmore for flag-bearing honours on Sunday despite the snowboarder ending the country's 16-year gold drought and also claiming a bronze.
Three-time Paralympian Perrine shared the duties with sighted guide Christian Geiger.
"I'm incredibly proud to lead this team out tonight," said Perrine, who has congenital vision loss.
"I feel Simi (Patmore) would have been an equally amazing choice. He's had an amazing Games. He's an amazing athlete. I would have been proud to walk out behind him as well.
"There's a bunch of awesome athletes and awesome competitors and to be considered for this is an honour."
Perrine reached the podium in super-combined and giant slalom last week for her first Paralympic medals.
Australia has wrapped up its most successful Games since Salt Lake City in 2002 when it claimed six gold medals, all in alpine skiing before the number of classifications were reduced.
PyeongChang has ended its time as hosts, with South Korea spending more than $13 billion on its successful Olympic and Paralympic Games.
It had welcomed 567 disabled athletes to the Paralympics to compete in 80 events as the United States finished on top of the medals table.
The Neutral Paralympic Athletes - Russians deemed clean and allowed to compete - finished second and Canada third.
The closing ceremony, which featured the extinguishing of the flame at the soon-to-be-demolished Olympic Stadium, paid tribute to renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who died last week after a long battle with motor-neurone disease.
"At the London 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony, Hawking noted that we are all different and that there is no such thing as a standard or run of the mill human being," International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons said.
"He urged us all to, 'Look at the stars and not at our feet'. And, over the last 10 days, the stars have shone brightly here in PyeongChang.
"While Hawking tested the limits of his imagination, Paralympians, you have once again pushed the boundaries of human endeavour."
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