Australia have entered a new Paralympic era in which the weight of the nation's gold medal hopes no longer rest on a few swimmer's shoulders.
Retired pool greats Jacqueline Freney and Matt Coudry did the heavy lifting in London, but Australia have maintained their top five spot on the medal tally without them in Rio.
And Chef de Mission Kate McLoughlin said with so many young athletes getting their first taste of success in Rio, it'll only get better for Tokyo 2020.
The two swimming stalwarts, with the help of Ellie Cole, won more than half of Australia's 32 gold medals four years ago, and there were fears the nation would falter without them in Rio.
"In London we just relied so heavily on those two swimmers but this time we've managed to do it by spreading the love across all of those sports," McLoughlin said.
"And not just medals but the number of personal bests we've had at these Games, the number of debutants who've medalled, I'm bursting with pride."
Snapping up 22 gold medals, 30 silver and 29 bronze, Australia have now achieved a top five finish at every Games since Barcelona 1992.
Australia's gold medal effort was fifth behind China's tally of 107, Great Britain's 64 gold medals, Ukraine's 41 and USA's 40.
Australian team co-captain Kurt Fearnley ended his Paralympic career and Australia's Rio Games on Sunday (Monday AEST), with the wheelchair racing veteran finishing second in the men's marathon, missing out on a fairytale gold-medal finish by one second.
But the country's Rio campaign was overshadowed before it had even begun when para-cyclist Michael Gallagher was sent packing from Rio on the eve of the Games with a doping ban.
Australia's all-time fastest Paralympian Evan O'Hanlon hung up his running shoes after he was denied a hat-trick of sprint gold medals.
He passed the baton on to young bucks like Scott Reardon, Isis Holt and James Turner.
Teenagers carved up the Rio pool, with rookies Tiffany Thomas Kane and Lakeisha Patterson and 17-year-old London Paralympian Maddison Elliot all clinching gold.
Wheelchair tennis star Dylan Alcott became one of a handful of Australians to win gold medals in two sports after switching from wheelchair basketball.
And sport-hopping para-cyclist Jessica Gallagher became Australia's first athlete to win a medal at both a summer and winter Games.
Australia's men's wheelchair rugby team extended their golden Paralympic reign when they beat world No.1 America by a single point, 59-58, in a double overtime thriller final.
The Steelers flew the flag for team sports after the Rollers, the widely fancied men's wheelchair basketball team, crashed out in a shock quarter-final loss to Great Britain.
Australia won gold medals in the Games' two debut sports para-canoe and para-triathlon, and took the final two titles in sailing's Paralympic farewell.
War veteran Curtis McGrath made good on a battlefield promise to represent his country again after losing his legs in Afghanistan, when he snared the first ever men's KL3 canoe sprint title.
Legally blind Katie Kelly and her sighted guide and Sydney 2000 Olympian Michellie Jones teamed up to take victory in the inaugural women's para-triathlon on Rio's iconic Copacabana beach.
Veteran sailors Liesl Tesch and Dan Fitzgibbon became the first sailors to win back-to-back gold medals and sonar trio Russell Boaden, Jonathan Harris and Colin Harrison also secured a final victory before the sport is dropped from the Paralympic program ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games.
