Ships hired over the weekend left the capital Beirut only half full of Australians with citizens from other countries taking the empty spaces.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs says that most Australians in Lebanon have returned home and more flights are expected to arrive in Sydney today.
Meanwhile officials have organised safe passage for Australian citizens and residents trapped in southern Lebanon which is bearing the brunt of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
The government is unsure how many Australians have been trying to leave the south because communication into the region is difficult after the bombing of mobile phone towers, as well as power shortages.
"DFAT are using resources both in Lebanon and community contacts in Australia to confirm numbers and locations in southern Lebanon," the DFAT spokesman said.
Australian officials in Beirut say the evacuees were taken by bus to Beirut and then onto boats to Turkey or Cyprus.
Evacuation winding down
The mass evacuation of foreign nationals fleeing the Israeli bombing of Lebanon is beginning to wind down.
The latest of around 30,000 people to leave have reached Cyprus and Turkey and Britain and the United States said they were scaling back their evacuations.
Fifteen ships brought hundreds of exhausted evacuees to the Mediterranean island in one of its busiest nights since Israel air strikes on Lebanon.
"When they bombed the airport we heard it as though it was next door and we saw the clouds come up. We have two babies, so it was impossible to stay there," said middle-aged Canadian Robert Daudelin from Montreal, after arriving at the Turkish port of Mersin.
"Leaving Beirut was much tougher because families including ours were being split and people were crying, people weren't sure if it was the right move to leave," Mr Daudelin said.
US officials said over 12,000 Americans had now left Lebanon and another 1,000 were expected to leave today, as numbers of those lining up to leave dwindled.
An estimated 5,000 British evacuees passing through the British air force base at Akrotiri in southern Cyprus were swiftly processed and flown home. Britain said it was wrapping up evacuations by boat yesterday.
More than 1,000 Canadians walked ashore to safety in Cyprus today, some saying many more people in Lebanon were trying to get out.
"There are thousands of people still waiting over there (to escape). It is very crowded," said Hussein Kalas, 16, a Canadian Lebanese from Ottawa.
Visiting evacuees in Larnaca yesterday, France's Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France would keep its operations in Cyprus in place to help pass humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
UN officials have said they will establish an aid staging point in Cyprus.
Evacuees expressed their relief at leaving Lebanon which has been bombarded by warplanes and artillery July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others.