Australia's World Cup dreams have come to end following a 1-0 loss to Germany in Argentina on Tuesday.
A penalty corner goal from Tina Bachmann was enough to secure the win for the Germans, who only needed a draw to progress, and confine the Hockeyroos to a play-off with Korea for fifth place.
The hard-fought win means Germany finished second in Pool A on 12 points, three points behind the all-conquering Netherlands, and will face host-nation Argentina in Thursday's semi-final.
Hockeyroos coach Frank Murray was disappointed with the performance but has already turned his attentions to the London 2012 Olympics.
"Obviously we are disappointed; not only in the result but in the way we played," he said.
"In our view we didn't play to our potential today, we turned the ball over far too easily in the middle of the field and we have a fair bit of work between now and London, so we look forward to that."
"Obviously we have the game against Korea to get over first, and then we have the Commonwealth Games but it's now about finding a group for London and making sure we have the players with the ability and the physical capacity to play these types of games at this type of tournament."
Earlier in the day New Zealand enjoyed a 3-0 win over India, their first World Cup win since defeating Scotland by the same scoreline in 2002.
Kiwi captain Kayla Sharland scored twice in the win and the result means India finished fifth in the Pool A standings while New Zealand was fourth.
Olympic champions the Netherlands enjoyed a tune-up ahead of their semi-final with England on Thursday by accounting for lowly Japan 5-2.
Dutchwoman Lidewij Welten scored her first goal at World Cup level against Japan, while tournament top-scorer Maartje Paumen scored two to take her tally to 10.
Japan will now face off with Spain, who finished at the foot of Pool B, for 11th place on Thursday.