Young and old carried the blue and yellow flag of the Ukraine – blue above for the sky and yellow below signifying what was once a great wheat nation.

After a minute's silence, a prayer and a hymn, community leader Pete Shmigel said: "We are seeing in the Ukraine the growth of a new form of terrorism, of tyrant terrorism whereby one man for his own aggrandisement, for his own political ambitions is terrorising through the use of mercenaries an entire country and now an entire world as a result of downing an aeroplane of innocent people."

Olya Kachanova, 19, on holiday in Sydney from the Ukraine addressed the crowd.

She said: "We want to be independent in the Ukraine. We don't want Russia. It is our country."

Wasyla Senko, another community leader said Putin should be excluded from G20.

"They [Russia] shot it down because they thought it was Ukrainian. Three hundred people died needlessly because of one man's ambition," he said.

At the cathedral a wreath was laid bearing the words 'In memory of the victims of Flight MH17'.

There was another silence and laying of black ribbons as a sign of remembrance.

Mackillop is portrayed in her statue wearing her nun's habit. It was a poignant reminder of another catholic nun.

Sister Philomene Tiernan, a teacher at Kincoppal school, Rose Bay. She was on board MH17.