At a memorial service yesterday surviving backpackers said their lives had been changed forever by the hostel fire that claimed 15 of their friends. About 2,000 people attended the emotional service in the Childers Civic Centre and hundreds more watched a large screen set up outside the building, many of them in tears.
Police intensified their search for an itinerant fruit picker wanted for questioning, and confirmed they were treating the fire as arson.
Homicide detectives urged farmers near the town to check their sheds and buildings for signs of the man last seen running through a park behind the hostel shortly before the fire.
Police also revised the nationalities of those killed to six Britons, one Irish, four Australians, two Dutch, one Korean and one Japanese. Seventy people survived.
At the memorial service, backpackers paid tribute to the victims of the inferno that engulfed the Palace Hostel early on Friday morning. Some guests managed to escape by squeezing through barred windows or fleeing across rooftops.
"We are all trying to come to terms with what happened. We never will and, although every one of us wants to forget, we never will. We owe it to the Palace 15 that they are never forgotten, ever," a British backpacker said.
Others spoke of love found and lost and of working alongside each other picking fruit in the Childers district.
A young Irishwoman and two women from Britain were so overcome with grief that they needed to be supported as they paid tribute to their friends.
The Australian Governor General, Sir William Deane, said Queen Elizabeth had sent her deepest sympathy over the tragedy, which he described as an occasion of profound sadness.
"Our hearts go out to all affected by the tragedy in this small but beautiful town of Childers and to the survivors still emerging from a nightmare experience," he said.
"We Australians grieve for our fellow Australians who lie dead. Ours was the land that they loved, but equally we grieve for the people of the other countries who have died. Their deaths are made so much worse by the fact they died far away from the lands they loved."
An emotional Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, addressed the congregation after visiting the charred ruins of the hostel.
"The thoughts of myself, and my wife and the government are with the families of those who are no longer with us," he said.
Mr Howard told a press conference that messages of sympathy had been received from several governments.
Six bodies were removed from the hostel at the weekend with the remainder to be recovered today and taken to Brisbane, 300 km south of Childers, for identification.
Acting Chief Supt Ken Benjamin said a sixteenth victim could be found, and it was now likely the final identification would be completed more quickly than had been feared.
On Saturday police launched a nationwide manhunt for Robert Paul Long (37), who had lived around the Queensland state town for three months.
The police said they were also investigating whether the hostel was fitted with operational fire alarms. The suspected arsonist left a suicide note apologising for any hurt he might cause, it was claimed yesterday. A local publican said he discovered a note allegedly written by Mr Long, the Sydney-born drifter police want to question, several weeks ago. Childers publican Mr Chris Woods said he called the police immediately he found the note.
"There was a note left on the counter of our bottleshop and I read the note and immediately called the local police," he told Channel 10 TV.
The note was believed to have been written about the time Mr Long was evicted from the hostel for not paying his rent.