By Matthew Kelly, James Massola and Amilia Rosa & Toby Crockford
Bali Nine drug mule Renae Lawrence is back in her home town of Newcastle after spending more than 13 years in jail in Indonesia.
Ms Lawrence, 41, with her mother Beverley Waterman, were the last passengers to step off the plane at Newcastle Airport after their Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane touched down about 11.15am on Thursday.
Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence arrives at Newcastle Airport with her mother Beverley Waterman and other family members on Thursday.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
She walked across the tarmac but as soon as she reached the terminal building, she began running.
She bolted through the terminal and into a waiting four-wheel-drive. Friends and family waited behind to collect the luggage.
Once inside the four-wheel-drive, Ms Lawrence threw a green towel over her head and waited while her family and friends collected her luggage and then joined her. The group then sped off.
Ms Lawrence walked free from Bangli prison on Wednesday after her imprisonment for her role in the plan to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin from Indonesia to Australia.
She and her family travelled on an overnight Virgin flight from Bali to Brisbane, where they were met by a large media pack.
They landed at Brisbane Airport about 4.45am local time, 20 minutes ahead of their scheduled arrival, before hopping on a terminal transfer bus.
They were ushered onto the connecting flight to Newcastle by Virgin staff and boarded before any other passengers.
She made one brief mumbled comment in Indonesian as she tried to weave her way through the media scrum, which translated as: "Thanks to the government of Indonesia, that's it."
Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence arrives at Brisbane Airport on Thursday.Credit: AAP
Fellow passengers had no idea Ms Lawrence had been on the same flight and, when asked by waiting media at the arrivals gate about her, the common response was a look of confusion followed by "Who?"
Passengers said they had not noticed extra security at Denpasar Airport and were dazzled by camera flashes and TV camera lights as they walked through the arrivals gate at Brisbane.
When Fairfax Media tried to ask Ms Lawrence to clarify what she said outside the international terminal, her family refused to respond and she avoided eye contact and kept her headphones in her ears.
First hours of freedom
Ms Lawrence spent the first hours of her life outside jail with her family, including her mother and stepbrother Allan Waterman.
In a quiet room in Bali’s Ngurah Rai international airport – hours before their scheduled departure for Australia – the family gathered to spend precious moments with her.
Nursing a cigarette and speaking softly, she looked shocked at her new-found freedom.
Asked by Fairfax Media about her time in jail, and how it felt to be free, Lawrence apologised and in her first public comments since her release said, "I’m sure, I’m positive" that she was not yet ready to speak about her experience.
Mrs Waterman chimed in that "it always gets misconstrued" when the family spoke to the media.
Five members of the Bali Nine are serving life sentences, with little prospect of release in the short term.
Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen are both still in Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison, where Lawrence was initially held. Scott Rush is in Bali's Karangasem prison, while Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens are being held in a jail on the island of Java.
Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were both executed on April 29, 2015, while Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of cancer in June this year.