Carmel Egan – Relying on nothing more than the word of a good friend and their faith in God, the West Papuan 43 turned their dugout canoe south and made for Australia. It was January 13 and the five families of 37 adults and six children were heading, literally and politically, into a storm.

Instead of the six to eight hours they had been told it would take to cross from the southernmost point of Irian Jaya to Weipa on the tip of Cape York, the group were lost at sea for four days.

They had originally left from Jayapura on the north coast of Irian Jaya, and used the canoe, powered by an outboard motor, to hop between coastal villages and towns until they reached Merauke.

It was there they were told Australia was just hours away. "Nobody helped us," said Henock Nawiea, a spokesman for 10 of the group now receiving medical treatment in Perth.

"Our friend, an activist in Merauke, he said it would be six to eight hours. We lost the way in the middle of the ocean and we were in the ocean four days after that, because we don't know the way from Merauke to Australia and there was bad weather and we didn't bring our food and drink. We were thirsty and hungry and very scared and it make us weak and we had some people sick."

The canoe had been made by the father of Herman Wainggai, who organised the group's flight. Mr Wainggai, who remains on Christmas Island with 33 of the group, last night thanked the Australian Government for accepting their plea for asylum.

"We wish to express our respectful thanks for this decision to the Australian Government, the Department of Immigration and also I wish to thank the people of Australia who have helped and welcomed us. We also wish to thank God."

The Indonesian Government has said none of the 43 were being persecuted or sought by authorities when they left Irian Jaya and their safety was guaranteed if they return. But the group last night rejected the assurances saying "Indonesian talk" was not to be trusted.

Mr Nawiea claimed that 300 West Papuan villagers who fled to Papua New Guinea in 2002 were encouraged to return with promises of improved welfare and housing, only to be imprisoned, tortured or killed. "We don't want to go back. We know the Indonesian talk," he said.

Mr Nawiea, an IT student and political activist, said he was imprisoned and beaten in Timika, on the central south coast, for several days in 2002 before fleeing into the mountains and hiding from the authorities.

"My situation in West Papua was unsafe," he said. "Sometimes they come looking for me and some of my friends, so our life there was very uncomfortable. In Timika people not live proper like other people, like in Java. They can't talk in Timika. They get angry to us if we make demonstrations."

Mr Nawiea brought his 21-year-old sister and 12-year-old nephew with him to Australia. The boy's father, who is active in the West Papua freedom movement, has been missing for about a week in Jayapura.

The West Papua 43 are expected to be transferred from detention on Christmas Island to freedom in Melbourne next week.

Those in Perth are being treated for symptoms of TB, stomach complaints and one for a leg injury. But the group remains fearful for the safety of their friends and families and for the future of the province under Indonesian rule.

"Many people are killed already and they are going to kill and torture many of the people there," Mr Nawiea said.

Life in exile will require a lot of adjustment, according to Australian West Papuan community matriarch Anto Rumwaropen.

"They will be very traumatised, especially the children," Ms Rumwaropen said of the newest members of the 4000-strong Australian-West Papuan community.

"I know what it is like to try to find somewhere to live away from the oppression, away from the Indonesian military, but to find also a place where you can continue the struggle for our country to be free," she said.

She was four years old when Indonesia began its takeover of West Papua on May 1, 1963. At 20 when she fled with her political songwriter husband Augustus and his reggae band, the Black Brothers, in 1979.

Lawyer's representing the group expect the 43rd member to be granted asylum in the coming weeks.