The two journalists who arrived on an asylum seeker boat at Christmas Island were on assignment for The New York Times magazine.
Australian Federal Police and Customs officials confirmed the two journalists arrived at Christmas Island on Monday onboard a boat carrying 57 passengers and two crew that was detected north of the island overnight.
The two men were named on Twitter by a Reuters reporter as writer Luke Mogelson and photographer Joel van Houdt.
Mr van Houdt's girlfriend, journalist Amie Ferris-Rotman, said the pair made the risky three-day voyage from Indonesia on assignment for the magazine.
"Joel emailed me. He said they're both exhausted and badly sunburned, and are laying low for now," Ms Ferris-Rotman told AAP.
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Mr Mogelson and Mr van Houdt are founding contributors to the website Razistan.org, which was set up to highlight the war in Afghanistan.
"Our core project is a website of unique photo essays that bring into vivid relief not only the conflict and its participants but also the country and its people," the website says.
Mr van Houdt, 32, is a Dutch national whose photographs have appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
Mr Mogelson, 30, is a Kabul-based US citizen.
Ms Ferris-Rotman said the journalists knew the dangers of the journey, which has claimed dozens of lives this year alone.
"I was incredibly anxious. He managed to send some texts from a safe house in Jakarta, but then the contact suddenly stopped for a few days," Ms Ferris-Rotman said.
"I now realise that's when he was on the boat. I am incredibly relieved they made it without sharks, the ship breaking or the Australian police confiscating his photo cards."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said the pair disembarked from a suspected irregular entry vessel on Monday before revealing themselves as journalists.
This latest boat arrival follows a vessel that arrived on Sunday carrying 88 passengers and two crew.
It was the first asylum seeker boat to arrive in Australia since Tony Abbott's election as prime minister on Saturday.
