Governor-General Peter Cosgrove is travelling to the Netherlands to receive the bodies of the Australians killed in the MH17 disaster.
A train carrying the remains of the victims recovered from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane reached the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday night, with Dutch investigators saying there were 200 bodies on board.
The bodies will soon be transferred to the Netherlands for identification and eventual repatriation.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had asked Sir Peter to travel to the Netherlands. He will be there for the arrival of Dutch and Australian aircraft carrying the remains.
“It is important for the families and for our nation that our people be received by one of our own,” Mr Abbott said in a statement today.
Mr Abbott said the identification of bodies could take some time.
“The task of identifying the victims is a process that must be conducted carefully and accurately,” he said. “By its very nature, it may take some weeks before we can honour the dead by returning them to those they loved and those that loved them. But we will bring them home.”
Mr Abbott said the government would transport victims’ families to the Netherlands to accompany their loved ones home, if they so wished.
Earlier, Dutch investigators said not all the MH17 bodies had been recovered from the crash site and some remain on the ground despite assurances from the Ukrainian government to the contrary.
Dutchman Jan Tuinder is leading the team of international experts that is preparing the remains to be transported to Holland.
Up to 39 Australian citizens and residents were among the almost 300 people on the plane that was likely shot down by Russia-backed separatists.
However, Mr Tuinder revealed that not all the MH17 passengers were on the refrigerated train that had arrived from the rebel village of Torez.
“As far as we know at this moment we are talking about 200 victims which means there are probably remains left in the area where this disaster took place,” he said in English.
“We are not sure of that but that’s what I think at this moment. Certainly it is 200 victims that we are taking out.”
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister said on Monday that 282 bodies and 87 fragments of another 16 bodies had been found.
Volodymyr Groysman told reporters in Kiev that all 298 deceased passengers had been loaded onto the refrigerated train bound for government-controlled Kharkiv.
Asked about the discrepancy, Mr Tuinder said: “The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m sure of the number 200.”
Access to the crash site has been frustrated by Russian-backed separatists and there are fears evidence may have been tampered with.
The Dutch mission head on Tuesday insisted the bodies will be found.
“I know that we do have to go back to sweep the (crash) area,” Mr Tuinder said.
“It’s an enormous area we all know that. It’s more than 14km in length.”
But, he said, the priority at present was returning the bodies from the train.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said body parts still lay scattered at the crash site.
“There were human remains that had not been picked up,” OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said after visiting the scene.
“What struck us is that we did not monitor any recovery activity in place,” he said, pointing out that OSCE observers saw human remains in at least two areas at the sprawling crash site in rebel-held territory.
Meanwhile, Australian experts on the ground in Ukraine are hoping they’ll soon have access to the Malaysian Airlines MH17 crash site.
The Prime Minister’s special envoy, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, says things are moving quickly near the site and his team should get access “in the near future”.
Malaysian and Dutch authorities had been granted access to the site but only three people were permitted to enter at one time, he said.
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously voted for a resolution demanding full cooperation for an international investigation at the site.
“Things seem to have settled down a little bit,” Mr Houston told ABC radio from the Ukraine city Kharkiv.
“But I would emphasise that there is still extensive fighting in the eastern Ukraine and the environment is very fluid.”
Mr Houston, who also led the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, has met with Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and ambassadors of countries affected by the crash.
He said his “feet have not touched the ground” since arriving in Ukraine two days ago.
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