Three-and-a-half years after the child sex abuse royal commission held its first public inquiry, its final hearing returned to the survivors who started it all.
They had a strong message for governments, institutions and the community: no child should suffer as they did.
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Child abuse Royal Commission: a look back
Painful and difficult stories in their thousands emerge from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Savannah Szoredi told of her hope to break the cycle of abuse, having grown up in a volatile family as a result of her mother being sexually assaulted while in state care.
"She understood the injustices which had happened to her and tried to work her hardest to be the best parent she could be," Ms Szoredi told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
"She was a survivor and she was proud of that as am I."
Now 24 and the mother of a young son, Ms Szoredi described a childhood marred by her mother's mental health problems, drug addiction and poverty.
"Today I feel sad because it could have been so different without all the trauma and my life could have been normal," she said.
Ms Szoredi's father was murdered when she was six; her mother died five years ago aged only 50.
![Robert Cummings, Steve Smith, Damian de Marco, Ivan Clarke. Front row: Aileen Ashford, Penny Rose and Sandra Kitching, ...](/web/20170402153809im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/b/4/l/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvaj3e.png/1491008128423.jpg)
"My son will never get to meet his grandparents and I will never get to share that experience with them," she said.
"I am determined to break the cycle so that my son is not affected by any traits I may have developed through growing up in this environment."
![Savannah Szoredi hopes for a better future after a volatile family life due to her mother's abuse in state care.](/web/20170402153809im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/a/o/w/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvaj3e.png/1491008128423.jpg)
A group of survivors calling themselves the Magnificent Seven echoed Ms Szoredi's hopes for a better future as they brought the final public hearing to a close.
Penny Rose, Sandra Kitching, Robert Cummings, Damian de Marco, Ivan Clarke, Steve Smith and Aileen Ashford come from vastly different walks of life but all felt the devastating impact of abuse.
When asked what should change, Mr Cummings told the inquiry: "What I would like to see is no more royal commissions. It is time to stop the inquiries and start putting actions into place."
Mr Smith agreed, telling the commission: "We should never again find ourselves in this situation where generations have been devastated and lives have been lost due to the indifference and self-serving attitudes of institutions in this country."
Mr de Marco described the impact of child abuse as: "Australia's number one health and welfare problem."
Mr Clarke urged the community to listen to children who make disclosures.
"The voice of a child is only as loud as the adult hearing it allows it to be," he said. "A fractured child becomes a broken adult."
Above all, said Ms Kitching: "Children have the right to be safe."
The chairman of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan, paid tribute to the survivors in his closing remarks.
"We have been told by many people that the public hearings have had a profound effect on the community's understanding of the nature and impact of the sexual abuse of children in Australia," he said.
"This is primarily due to the courage and determination of the survivors who have given evidence. Without them our public hearings would be a hollow attempt to tell their story. Without them the realities of child sexual abuse and the extent of institutional failure could not be recognised."
The royal commission will hand down its final report in December.
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A look back at the royal commission
The royal commission has heard from 1200 witnesses over 400 days of public hearings into institutions ranging from schools to churches and sports clubs. Here are some of the most significant moments.
Cardinal George Pell
One of the highest profile witnesses, the cardinal made three appearances at the commission where he was called on to give evidence about how the Catholic church responded to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Unable to travel from Rome due to a medical condition, the cardinal made his final appearance from Rome in 2016, under the watchful gaze of survivors who travelled to see him.
Grilled over four days, his claims to be ignorant of widespread offending were described as "implausible" by counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC.
Knox Grammar
Over twelve days of extraordinary revelations, the commission heard how former Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson systematically covered up multiple claims of abuse to protect the reputation of the private school.
The commission heard he hindered legal inquiries and deliberately misled a police officer investigating allegations.
In a stunning about face, Dr Paterson later recanted his testimony but this did not dissuade the commissioners from making damning findings about his actions in a report handed down last year.
Catholic church data
An analysis of claims against the Catholic church revealed the staggering extent of allegations of child sexual abuse for the first time.
The data, collated from claims made between 1980-2015, showed 4,445 people alleged they were abused as children in Catholic institutions, identifying a total of 1880 alleged perpetrators.
An analysis of alleged perpetrators in male religious orders between 1950-2010, found the highest proportion in St John of God (40 per cent), followed by the Christian Brothers (22 per cent), the Salesians of Don Bosco (21.9 per cent) and the Marist Brothers (20.4 per cent).
The Salvation Army
One of the first institutions to appear at the royal commission, the Salvation Army was the subject of four hearings between 2014-16. The first, held in January 2014, publicly detailed for the first time the brutal conditions at Salvation Army children's homes last century.
Former residents told the royal commission of horrific beatings and sexual assaults at the hands of the Salvation Army officers entrusted to care for them.
The fourth hearing, held in December 2016, heard the organisation had under-compensated dozens of people who suffered abuse in its care and still had more to do to improve child protection.
Newcastle
Newcastle featured prominently in the royal commission which heard evidence about widespread allegations of sexual abuse in both Anglican and Catholic institutions at two hearings in August last year.
Roger Herft, a former Anglican bishop of Newcastle, resigned from his position as archbishop of Perth after admitting he let down survivors of sexual abuse.
The inquiry into the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle heard of a "long and disturbing history of suffering by children". Philip Wilson, a former East Maitland parish priest now Archbishop of Adelaide, is defending a charge that he allegedly covered up abuse in the Hunter.