The federal government says up to 100 people could have been aboard an asylum-seeker boat that smashed on to rocks at Christmas Island.
At least 28 people, including children, died when their wooden vessel foundered in treacherous conditions near Flying Fish Cove on yesterday morning.
Bowen says 44 confirmed survivors
There are 44 confirmed survivors. Eleven of the survivors are children.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says it is still not clear how many people were on the boat. "People who have survived say there were between 70 and 100," he told Melbourne MTR.
"But we really don't know and we probably never will," Mr Bowen said, adding weather conditions in the area were extremely dangerous.
It had yet to be determined whether the boat had been tracked from Indonesia before its arrival at Christmas Island.
"My understanding is that it wasn't tracked, but this is early days," Mr Bowen said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Mr Bowen will be given a briefing of the situation later this morning.
"(Home Affairs Minister) Brendan O'Connor, who is on the island, will continue to speak to us during the morning," the minister said.
Border security policy 'won't change'
Mr Bowen, who has just returned from talks with the United Nations and Malaysian officials about a regional refugee processing centre on East Timor, said the accident would not change the government's border security policy.
"We need to break the people-smuggling business model, absolutely we do," he said.
"To do so we need international cooperation and that's what we're working very hard on to do."
The "terrible, tragic event" underlined the lengths people went to gain asylum in Australia.
Island residents horrified
Island residents told how they had watched from the cliffs as the tragedy unfolded yesterday.
"There were children in the water. There was one very small child in a life jacket floating face down for a very long time... clearly dead," said local shop owner Simon Prince.
"It's something I'm not going to forget very quickly."
Woken near dawn by the screams of victims, Prince said locals gathered life jackets and rushed to the sheer limestone cliffs to offer help, but strong winds blew the flotation devices back onshore.
The terrified group drifted for about an hour after losing engine power and only one man managed an "incredible leap" to safety before the surging waves smashed the rickety vessel apart on the rocks, Prince said.
Witnesses said the boat was crowded with passengers, mostly families, and a number were lying listless and ill on the deck as it splintered.
"Once it hit the rocks it shattered into pieces," said local councillor Kamar Ismail. "I heard people screaming for help, we just said to them 'We can't, we can't do much', we could throw them life jackets, that's all."
Prince said people were "crushed against jagged limestone" as navy rescuers battled towering swells to reach them in inflatable dinghies, while locals made a human chain and tried to cast ropes and life preservers down.
"The tragedy continued for some time and we witnessed people actually drowning," said another witness, Phillip Stewart.
Death toll could rise
Flying Doctors transported patients from the island, which lies 2,650 kilometres northwest of Perth.
A spokesman for the organisation said yesterday the death toll could rise to 50.
Thousands of asylum seekers from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have made their way to Australia this year, often on leaky boats from Indonesia.
Five Afghan refugees perished last year when their boat exploded off Ashmore Reef, near Christmas Island, injuring 30 others.
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