If confirmed to be carrying migrants, it would mark a dramatic failure of the country's highly criticized zero-tolerance "stop the boats" immigration policy.
It also comes just days after the man responsible for that policy -- Scott Morrison -- became Australian Prime Minister, after turfing out his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull in an inter-party battle.
The suspected migrants are currently believed to be seeking refuge in the Daintree rainforest, an area of dense mangroves known to be infested with salt-water crocodiles.
The Australian Border Force said it had detained a number of "potential unlawful non-citizens" but did not give a specific figure.
'Open air prisons'
Australia has long been an attractive destination for those in Asia and beyond seeking refuge from conflict, poverty and political repression.
Under successive conservative governments, the country has passed hardline policies designed to dissuade asylum seekers from making the often dangerous water crossing from Southeast Asia to northern Australia.
Following the 2013 election, the ruling Liberal-National Coalition -- with Morrison as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection -- launched Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB), vowing to "stop the boats."
Since then, the number of asylum seekers arriving in the Australian mainland by boat has fallen from a peak in 2013 of 20,587 to zero, according to a parliamentary research paper released last year.
A group of Chinese nationals landed on Sabai Island, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of the Australian mainland close to Papua New Guinea, in August 2017.
While no asylum seekers have made it to mainland since OSB launched, they have not gone away. Since 2012, the Australian government has intercepted boats headed to Australia and moved migrants to offshore detention camps on the Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
Under international law, people seeking asylum are guaranteed certain rights and protections, but in most cases may only make a claim on landing in the country they are attempting to gain refugee status in. By preventing asylum seekers from reaching Australia, Canberra effectively dodges these obligations.
Detainees within offshore the camps are banned from being settled on the Australian mainland, leaving many without any alternative but remaining in what have been described as "open air prisons."
Last week, a 12-year-old boy was airlifted to Australia for medical attention after refusing food and water for weeks. A 2016 United Nations report found many cases of "attempted suicide, self-immolation, acts of self-harm and depression" among children detained on Nauru.
According to UNICEF, the operation has also been hugely costly to the Australian taxpayer, running up a bill of at least $7 billion (9.6 billion AUD) "between 2013 and 2016 in maintaining offshore processing, onshore mandatory detention and boat turn-backs."
Key Liberal policy
While Australia's hardline migrant policies have been roundly criticized by rights groups and international bodies, they remain a point of pride for the ruling Liberal Party.
On the Liberal Party's website, recently revamped under new leader Morrison, "securing Australia's borders" is listed as an achievement of the Coalition government.
"It has been over three years without a boat arrival," the website still said Monday. "We have turned around Labor's failure and taken back control of our borders from the people smugglers."
Both Morrison and his challenger in last weeks Liberal party leadership battle, Peter Dutton, made their reputations on anti-migrant policies.
Dutton was returned to Morrison's cabinet Monday as Home Affairs Minister, however, a separate Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs was also named, shifting certain powers from a ministry under Turnbull that was seen as growing too powerful.
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