Hundreds of people gathered at RAAF Richmond north-west of Sydney to see one of the largest single repatriations in Australia's history.
It marks the end of a year long fight by families to lay the bodies of their loved ones to rest in Australia.
Two C17 Globemaster aircraft touched down at RAAF Richmond airbase, north-west of Sydney, carrying the remains of 33 Australians.
Five decades after they left our shores.
Among those returned were 22 Vietnam veterans, three killed in conflict in Malaysia, two spouses and six children.
Relatives were invited to a private ceremony with Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin.
Sara Ferguson was 21 and pregnant when her husband, Lieutenant David Brian, died while patrolling the Thai-Malay border in 1964.
She says leaving him behind when she left Malaysia was the hardest thing she has ever done.
"Terrible. I offered to pay for a charter plane and they said no. And because there were no facilities there he was buried very quickly. And I went the next day to the cemetery and his was the only grave in the entire cemetery."
Ms Ferguson says the repatriation is a wonderful moment for the families of those lost.
"Everybody is just over the moon, they are so thankful it's happened. Just to be able to put flowers on the grave without three months having to get clearance to go into a cemetery. Just to be able to do that, it's just wonderful. I feel inside just so peaceful"
She spent two years working with the government and her current husband, David Ferguson, to bring Lieutenant Brian and others home.
"We did it for the families. I was a retired senior officer in the defence force and I looked at this and we just stood there and I said we've gotta do something about this"
The government-funded repatriation program was announced by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott last year, after years of consultation between the Australian, Malaysian and Singapore governments.
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove says those lost were then, and are now, a precious part of our national community.
"For all of you today is an opportunity for further perhaps final closure. It's an opportunity to find peace for a loss that before now could never completely rest. So in these sad moments we hope you who mourn will find comfort from this last coming home. This last flight."
Veterans Affairs Minister Dan Tehan says bringing the remains home was the right thing to do.
"Government decisions which were made during the conflict which led to an anomaly. So what we're doing now is righting that. We've listened to the families, we've said we understand the pain, the hurt and the suffering, and we've decided to act."
Hearses formed an 800 metre procession carrying the coffins through Parramatta in western Sydney.
The remains are now being returned to their home states for funerals in the coming days.
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