A dejected Piastri fronted the media and apologised to fans on Sunday afternoon, at a time where most had expected him to be fighting for a home podium in Melbourne.
The local-hope's McLaren appeared to bounce off a kerb on the way out of turn four, before careering into the barriers just 40 minutes out from race start.
The car was left with the front-right wheel hanging off the car and substantial bodywork damage, in a nightmare start to the 24-year-old's season.
With little time before lights out, his team were unable to repair the car for the start of the race.
Piastri was unhurt, but evidently shattered by the non-start.
"A scenario like that just shouldn't happen, so it's obviously very disappointing," he said.
"We had a couple of things going on but I think the first part I want to stress is that there is certainly a big element of it that was me.
"Cold tyres, I have used that exit kerb every lap of the weekend, but maybe I didn't have to."
Piastri suggested that the incident was somewhat related to battling with F1's new regulations, but said there was no mechanical fault with his car.
"The difficult part to take with that is everything was working normally," Piastri said.
"I was backwards before I'd really even had a chance to react. It happened pretty quick.
"But obviously crashing out of the race trying to get to the race is the situation that we were in."
Piastri had qualified fifth for his home GP, after narrowly missing out on last year's championship.
The Australian missed a thrilling start, with Charles Leclerc jumping from fourth to go past the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli along with Isack Hadjar.
Hadjar's Red Bull also later retired owing to mechanical issues, while Russell and Antonelli returned to be first and second by the halfway point of the race.
Piastri had been one of the few drivers not to go off track across practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday, but chose the precise wrong moment for things to go wrong.
His crash continues a long run of horror stories for locals at Albert Park, with no Australian having ever reached the podium.
Almost 500,000 hopeful fans had attended this weekend's event, with a stand named in Piastri's honour and supporters in it decked out in green and gold.
However its placement means Piastri did not even pass it before his race was over.
"I'm just very sorry for everyone that came out at home to support me," Piastri said.
"It's clearly not the way I wanted to start the year either."
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