Funeral planned for eight murdered Australian children

The bodies of eight Australian children aged from two and 14 years will be laid to rest at a joint funeral next month, it was reported on Tuesday.

The four boys and four girls were killed in a house in the city of Cairns after being either stabbed or suffocated on Dec. 19 in a crime which made global headlines.

The mother of seven of the children and aunty of the otherRaina Mersane Ina Thaiday, 37 - has been charged with their murder, and are due to face court on Jan. 30.

The children will now be buried in the tropical Queensland city of Cairns on Jan. 10, the Australian Associated Press reported.

They were part of an extended indigenous family originally from the Torres Strait islands, which are mostly Australian territories just to the north of the continent on the eastern side.

Family patriarch Rod Willie said their priority had been offering support to traumatised family members and working through cultural protocols.

The family was holding meetings to plan the ceremony and would release full details once a funeral director had been appointed.

Plans have been made to demolish the house where the killings took place to make way for a permanent memorial for the children.