A man who went on a rampage at a Sydney shopping centre, killing six people, had minimal interactions with NSW authorities before the stabbing spree that ended with his fatal shooting.

Those dealings – a police direction while sleeping rough and a routine health complaint – will provide little assistance as investigators try to uncover why 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi seemingly singled out women in the terrifying incident at Westfield Bondi Junction.

The attack ended when he was shot dead by a lone police inspector, Amy Scott, after she confronted him on level five of the shopping centre on Saturday afternoon.

A major coronial inquiry, bolstered by up to $18 million in extra funding, will examine Cauchi’s “horrifying, vile act” as well as his previous interactions with authorities, Premier Chris Minns said on Monday.

Those include an incident when police asked him to move on from where he was believed to be sleeping rough in Sydney’s city centre and when he sought health care for an ear ailment.

NSW Premier Chris Minns speaks outside Bondi Junction Westfield. – AAP

Five women and one man were killed while 12 others – including a baby – were seriously wounded before Cauchi was shot.

Eight people remained in hospital on Monday, including a nine-month-old girl who had undergone surgery and was in a serious but stable condition.

The baby’s mother, 38-year-old osteopath Ashlee Good, was among those killed in the attack.

Dawn Singleton, the 25-year-old daughter of multi-millionaire businessman John Singleton, was one of the women killed, as were 47-year-old architect Jade Young, 55-year-old artist and designer Pikria Darchia and 27-year-old Chinese student Yixuan Cheng.

Security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, was also killed, while another guard was injured during the rampage.

The mass stabbing might drive weaponry changes for security guards, but Minns has ruled out allowing them to be armed with guns.

The killer’s motive might never be conclusively known, he said.

“The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of women in NSW hospitals and women were targeted by this attacker,” he said.

“It’s been a terrible day, a terrible weekend for Sydney and NSW and there’s millions of people that are grieving at the moment.”

"We're determined to get as much information as we possibly can," Minns said.

A police car outside Westfield Bondi Junction following Saturday's stabbings. – Reuters

Police Commissioner Karen Webb said videos of the attack “speak for themselves” and a gendered motive was a clear line of inquiry for investigators.

“It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives, that seems to be an area of interest, that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men,” she said.

"We don't know what was operating in the mind of the offender and that's why it's important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him ... so we can get some insight into what he might have been thinking."

A permanent memorial is being considered for near the Bondi shopping centre site in discussions with the local council, Minns said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had spoken to several families of those attacked.

“The gender breakdown is of course, concerning,” he said on Monday.

“Each and every victim here is mourned ... for their loved ones our heart goes out to them.”

Floral tributes grow outside Bondi Junction Westfield. – AAP

Albanese joined Minns on Sunday to lay flowers at the scene as the nation reeled.

Albanese also lashed social media as a "scourge" following the circulation of graphic images and videos from the stabbing attack. 

Photos of Cauci's body with the policewoman who shot him were shared on social media, as were videos of victims in the shopping centre. 

Asked about the distressing material being widely shared, Albanese said it was difficult to control, as everyone was now a publisher due to social media.

"It is a scourge in many ways, social media," he said.

"The lack of responsibility, it must be said, as well of some of the social media operators that we know about allowing content to be circulated which is clearly misinformation."

Albanese said the government has been criticised for proposing legislation that would increase power to regulate social media.

"The police were very clear – if people had videos and photos, they should be forwarded to the police, not posted on X or Facebook," he said.

Following the stabbings, social media users globally were making Islamophobic and anti-Semitic claims about the motives of the attacker.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pays tribute to the victims at a makeshift memorial outside the Westfield Bondi Junction, which is in his former electorate. – AAP

Channel 7 wrongly named on air a Sydney university student as the murderer, with a number of sites and social media accounts republishing the error.

The student has a common Jewish surname.

Albanese said traditional media outlets also had a responsibility, after the inaccurate information was broadcast.

"How is it that a mainstream media organisation just put that up," he said.

"There was other declarations early on by some mainstream media that there was a terrorist attack under way."

Floral tributes to the victims continue to grow as the centre is handed back to its owners, while flags are at half mast around Sydney ahead of the Opera House sails were lit with a black ribbon on Monday night.

There was no doubt Inspector Scott saved lives and so too had Australia’s robust gun controls, implemented following the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Albanese said on Sunday.

“This man wielded a deadly weapon in the form of a knife,” the prime minister said.

“But if it was an automatic gun then we would have been speaking about hundreds of deaths.

“It is an important reminder of how important it is that we do have strong gun laws in this country.”

Albanese called for flags at government buildings across Australia to be flown at half-mast on Monday in a national sign of mourning for the victims of the stabbing.

People lay tributes in Bondi. – Reuters

Dr Good, the daughter of former North Melbourne AFL player and board member Kerry Good, was remembered by her family as a “beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend” and an “all-round outstanding human”.

An emotional North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson described her death as a “tragedy” as landmarks in Melbourne were lit up on Sunday night in tribute to the victims and survivors.

“That poor little girl ... without her mum now. She was a beautiful, beautiful lady,” he told reporters.

Cauchi's devastated father said he had done everything in his power to help his "beautiful" son who lived with mental health issues for decades.

"I'm loving a monster. To you he's a monster but to me he was a very sick boy," he said.

Cauchi's estranged family expressed their devastation and sorrow for the six people killed in the mass stabbing event at Westfield Bondi Junction.

"I'm extremely sorry, I'm heartbroken for you," Mr Cauchi said to victims' families.

"This is so horrendous I can't even explain it. I'm just devastated, I love my son."

Cauchi's mother Michele said she did not know what motivated her son's attack, saying he was "brought up in love".

"We're just ordinary people who brought up our son as best we could," Mrs Cauchi said.

"I'm so sorry about what my son has done. We don't know why he did what he did – it was very out of character."

Health Minister Ryan Park said the killer had not fallen “through the cracks” in a NSW mental health system that he did not appear to have interacted with since moving to the state from Queensland.

Shopping centre owner Scentre Group chief executive Elliott Rusanow offered condolences to the family of killed security guard Faraz Tahir.

"We are devastated by Faraz's passing and recognise our team member's bravery and role as a first responder," he said.

Another security worker was among the injured taken to hospital.