More than 100 Australians and other tourists have landed in Brisbane from New Caledonia after the government arranged two repatriation flights due to the worsening security situation there.
In a statement on X, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said 108 Australians and others had arrived back in Australia on Tuesday night on the government assisted-departure flights after riots in New Caledonia left six dead and a trail of looted shops, torched cars and road barricades.
A New Zealand defence force plane landed in Auckland with about 50 people on board, the New Zealand Herald reported.
More flights were expected in coming days to evacuate about 500 French and foreign tourists in total, France's high commission in New Caledonia said.
About 300 Australians in New Caledonia are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Fadi Chemali, who was on the first plane to reach Australia, said those onboard had been filled with relief after days of failing to find a way off the island.
"Everyone clapped once we landed, we were all just so happy," he told Australian Associated Press shortly after landing in Brisbane on Tuesday night.
Chemali had been holidaying with his wife and young daughter for a week before the riots broke out and spent eight days scrambling to find a way home.
"I didn't see any of the violence up close but we heard a lot, including gunshots from where we were - it has been fairly intense."
As she arrived in Brisbane, an Australian tourist, Mary Hatten, said she had been largely confined to her hotel. "The place was just in a mess," she told the ABC.
Chris Salmon, who works in the mining industry in New Caledonia, hugged his family and said he was relieved to have left. "It feels all pretty awful, pretty senseless," he said.
The airport, shut since the start of the riots, remained closed for commercial flights.
About 3,200 people were waiting to leave or enter New Caledonia after commercial flights were cancelled last week due to the unrest, the local government has said.
Australian officials said passengers were being prioritised based on need. Those left behind were frustrated, said an Australian, Benen Huntley, who has been stranded in New Caledonia while on honeymoon with his wife, Emily.
"My wife is quite upset, we just want to get home," he said in a telephone interview.
"We opened our hotel door this morning and you could just see an enormous billow of smoke coming off a building in the distance."
Australia's consul general in New Caledonia, Annelise Young, posted on X that her team had been working round the clock with teams in Canberra and Paris and closely with the French authorities to ensure safe passage for Australian tourists.
More than 1,000 gendarmes and police from France were on patrol and 600 more would be sent there, France's high commission said.
France's president, Emmanuel Macron, set off for New Caledonia late on Tuesday, his office said. He will meet elected officials and local representatives on Thursday for a day of talks focused on politics and on the reconstruction of the island, aides said.
The protests were sparked by anger among Indigenous Kanak people over constitutional reform approved in Paris that would change who is allowed to take part in elections. Local leaders fear the change will dilute the Kanak vote.
Three of the six people killed in the unrest were young Kanaks shot by armed civilians, and there have been confrontations between Kanak protesters and armed self-defence groups.
- Reuters and AAP contributed to this report
