Memorials around the country today marked the 10th anniversary of the downing of flight MH17 which tragically killed 298 passengers and crew in a controlled area of Ukraine.
Families and friends, political leaders and dignitaries, and Church leaders remembered all those who died, including 38 Australian victims who were on board the Malaysia Airlines plane when it was shot down with debris strewn across the sunflower fields in the Donetsk province, in eastern Ukraine.
A decade after the tragedy those who lost loved ones are still searching for answers.
MH17 was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by what the Dutch Safety Board investigation concluded was a Russian-made missile.
In 2022, a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a pro-Russian Ukrainian in absentia of murder for their roles in transporting the missile into Ukraine from a Russian military base.
They were given prison sentences but it remains unlikely they will ever be handed over by Russian authorities.
Among the Australians onboard the flight was Sr Philomene Tiernan rscj. Sr Phil,77, was the Provincial of Australia/New Zealand for the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from 1993 to 1999.
One of the last to be identified on the ill-fated flight, Sr Phil was travelling home to Australia having been in England for a retreat, visiting France and also for a family reunion in Holland.
A great scholar, academically and religiously, Sr Phil was also a former Chancellor of the Diocese of Broken Bay in 2000 but for more than 30 years she was associated with Kincoppal-Rose Bay, School of the Sacred Heart, holding the positions of Director of Boarding and Director of the Kincoppal-Rose Bay School Board.
Friends, former and current students remembered Sr Phil in their prayers, tributes and memorial services today.