Mu Fang, of Birmingham Gardens, and Xufei Liu, of Cairns, were the "shore party" for an international people smuggling network which transported six Chinese nationals into Australian waters in January 2020.

The six people did not have valid visas to enter Australia and had all been previously refused visas, Judge Antony Townsend said on Thursday.

The operation to illegally smuggle the group into Australia from China, via Indonesia, was organised by a Chinese national, who was assisted by a Malaysian national and an Indonesian man nicknamed "the skipper".

But on January 23, 2020, the Royal Australian Navy intercepted a wooden vessel about four nautical miles inside the Australian territorial sea and onboard found two crew and six passengers.

The ship and passengers were handed over to the Australian Border Force, which searched the vessel and found limited fishing gear but plenty of luggage.

The boat was ultimately turned around and travelled back to Indonesia.

A protracted investigation by Australian Federal Police found that had the Chinese nationals arrived in Australia, they would likely have entered "debt slavery" and would have to undertake unpaid work for a year to repay the criminal syndicate's costs for their journey.

Meanwhile, Fang and Liu had hired a van outside Cairns and were attempting to drive to Dundee Beach, outside Darwin, to collect the six illegal immigrants.

But the van became bogged in a creek in Daly River, south of Darwin, and Fang and Liu had to abandon the vehicle and call emergency services for help.

When police arrived they found the two men were "grossly underprepared for the journey".

The van contained no luggage or camping gear and the men had lost access to Google maps because of poor reception and had no other maps.

When police towed the van, Fang was showing signs of heat exhaustion.

"The offending was extraordinarily lacking in sophistication... when they had to be pulled out of the creek by emergency services," Judge Townsend said.

He jailed Fang for a maximum of five years, with a non-parole period of three years, the same sentence Liu received in Queensland District Court last year.

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