'Pretty good navigators': Shire president says boat arrivals 'well informed' and targeting WA's north (2024)

Greater military presence is needed along Western Australia's northern coastline, according to a local shire president, after the arrival of another group of men suspected to be asylum seekers.

Authorities said the group were found near theMungalalu-Truscott Airbase in the far north KimberleyonFriday, after arriving in an "unknown vessel".

It's the third boat to arrive in the Kimberley in the last six months, after 39 men travelled by boat from Indonesia to the small remote Indigenous community of Beagle Bay, about 100 kilometres north of Broome in February.

It followed the discovery of a group of asylum seekers at Truscott airbase back in November.

Wyndham East Kimberley shire president David Menzel said the weekend's arrival to his shire was "a joke".

"We've got over 40 per cent of Australia's exports going out of this corner of the country and got a few soldiers somewhere guarding the whole show," he said.

"It just seems a bit of a joke that this sort of thing is happening."

Mr Menzel said the news was "no great surprise" and believed the recent arrivals were well informed, specifically targeting populated areas of the Kimberley coastline.

"Everyone says that they're landing in remote Australia … well I would view it slightly different; they're landing in our shire," he said.

"Whether they're landing on the peninsula north of Broome where there's plenty of communities that can welcome them, or whether they land on the Mitchell Plateau right at a major airport and piece of infrastructure and a community there, they are certainly well informed.

"I'd say they're pretty good navigators."

Biosecurity concerns

The boat arrival sparked an extensive land search after one of the men became separated from the group.

In a statement, WA Police confirmed the man was found late Sunday afternoon in a "relatively good condition", not far from the Truscott airbase, where he received medical treatment.

Mr Menzel said while he hoped the group members were unharmed, he was concerned over the biosecurity risks posed by illegal boat arrivals.

"We don't really want people arriving here and suffering or potentially dying ... but there's also the biosecurity risk", he said.

"It's certainly not far from Indonesia.

"We know there's some significant threats just over that way, so we're probably more concerned that no one seems to care too much about the biosecurity risks."

The shire president said he hoped authorities were taking his concerns seriously.

"It'd be good to get an idea of whether they're serious about protecting Australia from that risk or whether they're happy to just pick people up when they arrive and take them to whichever facility they take them to," he said.

Nation's 'powerhouse' undefended

The chair of the North West Defence Alliance Matthew Niikkula said more surveillance off the state's coast was needed.

"The fact that it's the third boat that they found, that raises the question if there's others that haven't been found that have gone through," he said.

"We have a huge amount of offshore oil and gas investments out there.

"It is the powerhouse of the country and currently it's totally undefended and very close to all of the activity that's happening to our north".

Mr Niikkula said deterrent messages to people travelling illegally by boat to Australia, weren't getting through.

"The best way to deter that is to increase and to make well known that there's plenty of coastal patrol out there and plenty of boots on the ground," he said.

Current policy 'is working'

Assistant Minister for Defence Matt Thistlewaite insists Operation Sovereign Borders remains strong.

"The majority of boats are turned back but there are occasions where you do have some arrivals," he told reporters in Perth on Monday morning.

"We want to be very clear that illegal migrants to Australia will come under the operation of Operation Sovereign Borders," he said.

"That means they'll be transferred to a third country for processing, such as Nauru."

Mr Thistlewaite dismissed suggestions the men were unfairly treated.

"Australia operates in accordance with humanitarian laws at all times [the policy] ensures that Australia continues to meet all its international obligations," he said.

"Operational sovereign border is a bipartisan policy and that involves boats being turned back where it's safe to do so."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended Australia's border policies on Sunday, saying Operation Sovereign Borders would not change.

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