Tears have been shed and sprigs of wattle laid in memory of the Australians killed a year ago in the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine.
Dignitaries and families gathered at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday for a national memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the disaster.
Ahead of the service in the Great Hall, Prime Minister Tony Abbott unveiled a plaque in a nearby garden etched with the names of the 38 Australian citizens and residents killed.
The plinth sits in soil brought back by a federal police officer from the crash site near Donesk, close to the Ukraine-Russia boarder, "It was a humane and decent thing for him to know and do," Mr
Abbott said.
"It was a contrast to the savagery that brought down the plane." Mr Abbott recognised the families of the dead had endured the worst year of their lives.
"Hardly a moment would go by when you don't think of a parent, a child, a sibling, a friend, present in your thoughts but painfully absent from your life," he told the more than 500 people gathered for the ceremony.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten echoed the prime minister's words.
"Grief is a solitary emotion. It can come up behind you like a following wave in unguarded moments," he said.
The prime minister also took aim at Russia, which international observers say was in contact with, and supplied weapons to pro-Russia separatists, who've been blamed for shooting down the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777.
"They deserved to be welcomed home, not shot out of the sky in a war of aggression by one country against a smaller neighbour," he said.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop read a note from the parents of the Maslin children - Mo, 12, Evie, 10, and Otis, eight, who died with their grandfather Nick Norris.
"If this tragedy has given us anything, it is a voice which we hope to use to speak for peace. Our family was an innocent victim of a far-away war ... as our kids always said: Peace out."
Toowoomba man Paul Guard, who lost his parents Roger and Jill, made the journey to the nation's capital for the service with nine other family members. "It will be a difficult day but hopefully a useful part of the
healing process," he told ABC TV.
Former defence force chief Angus Houston, who led the Operation Bring Them Home recovery effort for Australia, also spoke at the service, along with Governor-General Peter Cosgrove.
Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine have asked the United Nations Security Council to establish an international criminal tribunal to try those responsible.
Ms Bishop wants the tribunal set up before a criminal investigation report into the incident is released.
Earlier, the foreign minister said she was sickened by the release overnight of footage showing Russian-backed rebels ransacking the luggage of passengers aboard the doomed flight.
"The burden of grieving and then seeing this footage will be almost too much to bear," she said.
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