Butchery and bravery are the words Australian trekkers are using to describe a terrifying attack in Papua New Guinea that left two men dead.
Guides Kuia Kerry and Matthew Lasong were killed when six bandits armed with machetes, a rifle and a home-made gun attacked the group as they camped along the Black Cat Trail in PNG's Morobe Province on Tuesday.
The seven Australians and one New Zealander were flown from Port Moresby to Cairns on Thursday.
"It's not really about us," attack survivor Peter Stevens told reporters after arriving in Cairns.
"We're very concerned about the porters and their families, the local economy which they've probably lost.
"We got off I think with fairly superficial injuries."
Mr Stevens was standing at the edge of the camp when the armed bandits - known locally as raskols - attacked.
"The first thing they did was lay into the porters, basically hacking and slashing," he said.
"They killed one guy just about outright."
In what Mr Stevens described as an act of butchery, six PNG porters were injured in the "hacking and slashing" attack which left another of the PNG men critically injured.
Nick Bennett, from Mackay in central Queensland, said he witnessed a senseless act of murder and butchery.
"That's basically what happened," he said.
"They came for money, then they brutalised the porters, that's really what we've been witness to and experienced."
He said he stuck his head out of his tent and was hit with the barrel of a gun.
"I could see one of the guys just attacking the porters with a bush knife and it was just a butchery."
The group was forced to lie on the ground as the armed men ransacked their packs, stealing passports and other items.
Mr Stevens said two of the attackers were obviously drugged.
"They then laid into us with bush knives, hitting us with the flats of the knives," he said.
"You can't tell whether they're going to hit you with the flat side.
"Some people were cut."
When the attackers demanded to speak to whoever was in charge, it fell to trek leader and the only woman in the group, Christie King, to face the attackers.
"Christie King, the tour guide, was amazing," Mr Stevens said.
"Very brave ... When the raskols demanded to speak to the boss man, Christie stood up."
Ms King, who on Thursday declined to speak to the media, decided those capable should walk to the town of Wau for help.
That meant walking five and a half hours in the same direction their attackers had taken, a move local officials have described as "pretty gutsy".
"We could smell the raskols' marijuana ahead of us," Mr Stevens said.
"We could see tracks on the path."
On Thursday PNG Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga flew to Lae to coordinate the search for the bandits.
As many as 30 extra police - including the feared PNG mobile squad - will be sent to the area to help in the search for the offenders.
They will be aided by local village trackers.
Police are understood to be investigating personal motives for the attack but a spokesman said it was too early to tell.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill meanwhile invoked the nation's death penalty in response to the attack, and lashed out at the bandits for harming PNG's tourist industry.
Lae Chamber of Commerce spokesman Phil Franklin told AAP the attack could harm perceptions of the area, but security was fine and such attacks were rare.
