Melbourne woman who returned to Australia in 2025 charged with joining ISIS

Police in Victoria have charged a Melbourne woman who travelled to Syria in 2013 or 2014 with joining the Islamic State group.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said authorities had conducted searches at homes in the Melbourne suburbs of Broadmeadows and Fitzroy North early on Thursday as part of ongoing investigations under Operation Kurrajong.

Police in Victoria were continuing to investigate the other woman, AFP Deputy Commissioner National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec said in a briefing on Thursday. The woman is expected to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court today charged with entering or remaining in a declared area and being a member of a terrorist organisation, both offences carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Operation Kurrajong is a joint operation of the AFP, domestic spy agency ASIO, and state and territory police through the Joint Counter Terrorism Teams focused on investigating individuals alleged to have travelled to Syria during the ISIS caliphate. “In the past three weeks, the New South Wales and Victoria joint terrorism teams have charged four women for terrorism-related offences or crimes against humanity or slavery offences,” Deputy Commissioner Hilda Sirec said.

This case is correlated to the ongoing incident of ‘ISIS Brides’, groups of women who lived in Syria due to their husbands’ involvement with ISIS. Both groups of women and children had spent years in the notorious al-Roj camp in northern Syria. AFP said their belongings were searched and their devices downloaded, but no-one was arrested.