Families make pilgrimage to Afghanistan

Family members of soldiers killed in Afghanistan have made a pilgrimage to Tarin Kowt accompanied by defence chief general David Hurley.

(File/AAP)

Fifty-seven family members of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan have made an emotional pilgrimage to southern Afghanistan, laying poppies on the Tarin Kowt memorial.

Family members travelled on an RAAF aircraft to the multi-national base in Tarin Kowt on Saturday, attending a moving ceremony to honour those lost in more than a decade of conflict.

Australian Defence Force chief General David Hurley, who accompanied the group, said this was about helping families to heal by giving them an opportunity to experience and understand the country where their loved ones lost their lives.

Forty Australian soldiers have died in Afghanistan.

Peter Diddams, whose son Blaine was killed in July 2012 in an engagement with insurgents, said visiting the base was a surreal experience.

"It actually conforms with photographs and with Google Earth that I've looked at and books that I have read," he said in a defence statement.

"But it's still an amazing experience to walk out the back of the C-17 and see the mountains around, the dust and the blast walls, the vehicles and the bunkers."

Kim Duffy, father of Captain Bryce Duffy who was killed by small arms fire during an insider attack in October 2011 said families were grateful.

"This is a big closure event for us. Nothing will ever remove the pain and the loss, but just being here is a huge closure chapter, I think, for everybody," he said.

General Hurley said the families of those killed were the ones who bore the true cost of war.

"Yet despite their grief they are able to find comfort in what their fathers, partners, sons and brothers achieved in their service to our nation," he said in a statement.

General Hurley said this was the most important visit he had ever made as defence chief.

"I cannot help but admire the courage and strength of these families - it has been a tremendous privilege to make this journey with them," he said.