Two men said they saw her on a walking track near Wanda Beach the afternoon she went missing, carrying her handbag and in no apparent distress, the court heard.

The next day, tellers at the Cronulla ANZ and Westpac banks were confident they served Mrs Braidwood, who had been trying to buy British pounds, the court was told.

The court heard one of the tellers had sighted her British passport, and taken specific note of the woman's name because she had family in the NSW township of Braidwood.

But if Mrs Braidwood went missing on a Wednesday and was seen that Thursday, where had she spent the intervening night, Ms Milledge asked the court.

"Nobody said she appeared dishevelled, dirty or disoriented as if she'd spent the night on the street - it's really bizarre," she said.

An investigation involving British police and even a check of Australian immigration detention centres had turned up no sign of her since, Detective Sergeant Rohan Cramsie told the court.

The February before she disappeared, Mrs Braidwood tried to put down a $48,000 deposit on a Cronulla property, but used an incorrectly labelled cheque, Sergeant Cramsie said.

English bank records revealed Mrs Braidwood had no great wealth, and her accounts remained untouched since her disappearance, he told the court.

He said there was no evidence to indicate foul play in Mrs Braidwood's disappearance, and that police thought it most likely she had drowned.

Mrs Braidwood's daughter Rosemary Cooper, of Woolooware, first reported her missing when she didn't return from her shopping trip to Cronulla.

She said in a statement to the court her sister had confiscated her mother's credit card the previous night because she had been spending too much.

Ms Cooper's statement said Mrs Braidwood had gone wandering in the past and had disappeared for an entire night in England after missing a bus.

She also had two stints in an English hospital, the second due to family concerns over her binge-buying.

"Mum had gone frantically buying furniture and junk," Ms Cooper said.

Pressed by police for theories behind her mother's disappearance, Ms Cooper said in her statement she might have run from her family because they tried to curb her spending, become confused and sought refuge in a convent, joined a religious sect, or drowned near Cronulla.

Ms Cooper said her mother could not swim but could have gone into the water to cool her feet if she had walked a long distance.

She told the court she believed a drowning was the most likely explanation, and said the other theories were speculative replies to police questioning.

"I believe she's up there in heaven," she said.

Praising Mr Cramsie for his "absolutely thorough" investigation, Ms Milledge said she was confident Mrs Braidwood was dead, but could not find how, why or where she died.

"It's just a complete disappearance - there's nothing to lead us to understand what happened to her at the end," she told the court.

Outside the court, Mrs Braidwood's daughter Gillian Sofatzis, of Hurstville, thanked police and said the finding had given the family comfort.

"We're glad we have got a conclusion - we've always felt that mum was deceased," she said.

"Of course we'll never really know what happened ... but we do believe she drowned at Cronulla, and that's why there's no evidence anywhere."