Two dogs alerted locals when 39 asylum seekers reached Pender Bay, WA

Marley and Smokey alerted Aboriginal residents when a group of asylum seekers reached the Australian mainland outside the remote Pender Bay tourist camp last week.

Marley (R) and Smokey were Australia's first line of defence over the weekend, responding to two arrivals by boat of asylum seekers in the far north west of West Australia.

Two camp dogs were Australia’s first line of defence when 39 asylum seekers reached the Australian mainland last week.

Marley and Smokey alerted Aboriginal residents on the remote Dampier Peninsula that something was not right about 2am on Friday, as a group of 26 men trampled the dirt around a water tank outside the tiny and remote Pender Bay tourist camp.

Marley is young with a style best described as forward, but the elderly Smokey joined in as best he could. Together they barked the place down, prompting the men to scarper in the direction of Beagle Bay before any humans saw them.

At first light the group was still walking south towards the Aboriginal community of Beagle Bay, population 350, when the owner of the Pender Bay camp and his Aboriginal neighbours began investigations that delivered astonishingly accurate evidence to Australian Border Force.

Beagle Bay is north of Broome in WA. Picture: Google Maps

They started by looking at the footprints around the water tank. They worked out the number of people who had been there. They put up a drone and found the men’s camp and what they believed was the landing site of their boat with two sets of footprints heading in different directions.

The traditional owners – all experienced hunters with tracking skills – knew they were looking at one bigger and one smaller group of people, possibly from separate boats. They had already heard news that a group of more than 20 male asylum seekers had reached Beagle Bay.

That must have been the group at the water tank, they thought. So where was the other group? Unbeknown to the trackers, they were with Marley and Smokey.

The owner of the Pender Bay camp, an intensely private Aboriginal man with no interest in being named in the media, abandoned his search for the second group on Friday afternoon as heavy rain and a storm destroyed all hope of finding any more tracks. As he drove back into his home camp about 3.15pm, there in front of him was the other group. All 13 men were bailed up by his dogs.

A group of asylum seekers were discovered on the remote Dampier Peninsula north of Broome on Saturday afternoon.

Would these strangers knock him over for his car? Were they armed? He did not know. He got out of his vehicle and began a conversation that lasted more than two hours. The men finally agreed to wait for authorities. Police then collected them from Pender Bay at 5.45pm.

At the beach on Tuesday, Marley and Smokey were back to their comparatively uneventful routines, including sniffing found objects. Their owner is calling them Australia’s border force. Though he is well known on the peninsula, Marley and Smokey’s 57-year-old owner remains too modest to agree to have his name published. We could not twist his arm. He is very proud of his dogs, though, so he gave The Australian a photo of them.

“They are requesting a pay rise,” he joked.

“They were the first Australians to meet both groups in separate skirmish lines.

“Marley, a female in black ­camouflage, was the bravest first responder and an ageing Smokey in white provided distant intermittent covering fire.”