Australian death toll from MH17 tragedy rises
The Prime Minister's office has confirmed that another Western Australian resident was killed on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, taking the Australian death toll to 37 residents and citizens.
"A spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s Office has confirmed that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has advised that an additional Permanent Resident, understood to have resided in Western Australia, has been identified as being a passenger on Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17," the Government said in a statement.
"The families of the Australian victims have requested privacy and out of respect for their wishes, the Australian Government will not be providing details of the victims unless specifically requested to do so by families."
Mourners gathered across Australia on Sunday to pay tribute to the lives lost when the Boeing 777 was shot down from the sky in eastern Ukraine on Friday morning.
Aged just eight, 10, 12 and 15, Mo and Evie and Otis Maslin, Piers and Marnix and Margaux van den Hende were the youngest of the 36 victims of MH17 that Australia is grieving.
They were among the 83 children, including three babies, killed on the Malaysia Airlines flight. Children made up a quarter of the 298 people on the flight, most likely shot out of the sky by Russian-backed rebels.
Vic MH17 family remembered
Fifteen-year-old Piers van den Hende loved to play golf, Margaux, 8, was a dancer and Marnix, 12, wanted to be an artist.
Classmates, teammates, co-workers and friends have gathered in a Victorian community to remember the family of five killed when Flight MH17 went down.
Hans van den Hende, his wife Shaliza Dewa and their children Piers, Marnix, and Margaux, were on their way home from a European holiday.
Both their parents and children made a huge impression on their community of Eynesbury, the assistant principal of the childrens' school said.
"It's just a huge hole," Andrew Mackenzie from Bacchus Marsh Grammar told reporters on Sunday.
Teammates from the Melton Pheonix soccer club told a gathering of hundreds they were "broken-hearted" at the loss of Piers.
"Piers always had a laugh but still managed to get straight As," school friends recalled.
Friends of Marnix remember seeing Shaliza jumping up and down, cheering him on at swimming competitions.
The Melton swimming champ was also described as a really good friend, artistic, kind and bright.
"Straight away he was really nice to me," a classmate of Marnix said.
Margaux, the youngest, left an impression on those around her with her sense of humour.
"She was really funny and she had a really imaginative personality," a friend told the gathering.
A colleague of Hans said he was a man of great integrity.
"He was quietly spoken, but hugely intelligent and full on integrity," Craig Coonan said.
A friend who had known Shaliza for 30 years recalled her turning up to school with a "radically funky hairdo".
"Whether we've been in the same country or different ends of the world, we have always maintained our friendship," she said.
WA schools mourn MH17 victims
The Perth schools of three children and two teachers killed on flight MH17 are preparing to support staff and students returning to class this week.
Mo, 12, Evie, 10, and Otis Maslin, 8, and their grandfather Nick Norris were among the seven West Australians who lost their lives in the Malaysia Airlines plane tragedy.
The children were travelling back to Perth for the start of the school term.
At Evie and Otis' school, Deanmore Primary in Karrinyup, principal Jeanette Metcalf and lead school psychologists have been preparing for students to return on Monday.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education WA said teachers would be keeping an eye out for students who may be particularly distressed.
She said counselling would be available to students, staff and the wider school community.
Tributes paid to dedicated NT teacher
Emma Bell was a teacher who was devoting the early years of her career to the challenge of working with indigenous children in a remote Northern Territory community.
Originally from Lithgow, west of Sydney, Ms Bell had moved to the Northern Territory 18 months ago to teach at Maningrida College in northern Arnhem Land.
The travel-loving teacher, who was in her 20s, was returning from her latest adventure in Europe to start the school term when she was killed on board MH17.
Maningrida College principal Stuart Dwyer said Ms Bell's dedication to her job had won the respect of parents and elders in the local community.
"She was dearly loved by all her students and their parents down in our homeland schools," he told AAP.
"These are really different places to be teaching and they demand a lot from a person.
"Emma stood up to that challenge and was well respected within those homeland schools where she taught by parents, traditional land owners and the community in general."
Ms Bell was described as a spirited and lighthearted young woman who loved travelling and exploring Arnhem Land's rich landscape.
She had devoted her free time to learning the language of the homeland schools where she worked.
Mr Dwyer said he had spoken with Ms Bell's parents and couldn't imagine their pain.
"In time they'll come up here and meet the different people and see the influence that Emma has had on so many students," he said.
