Nicosia: With its flag lowered one final time, Australia has ended 53 years of helping to keep the peace on ethnically divided Cyprus by pulling out its last three police officers serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force.

Some 1600 Australian police officers have served in Cyprus since 1964 following the outbreak of violence between the island's Greek and Turkish communities.

Australian UN police officers fold the Australian flag during a flag-lowering ceremony to end Australia's peacekeeping contribution in Cyprus on Friday. Credit:AP

Three Australians were killed in the line of duty in what was their country's first policing contribution to a peacekeeping mission.

A flag-lowering ceremony at the Cypriot capital's defunct airport, which serves as the UN force's headquarters, brought together many officers who served in Cyprus over the decades, including one who was in the first 40-strong contingent, 79-year-old Ian Hardy.