There have been renewed calls for a full judicial inquiry into the 'SIEV-X' tragedy. More than 350 people died when the overloaded Indonesian fishing boat sank en route to Christmas Island. Almost two years later, the circumstances remain in dispute.

The boat, dubbed 'SIEV-X', sank on October 19, 2001, with almost 400 people on board. Only 45 of them survived. The would-be asylum seekers were rescued by Indonesian fishermen after 19 harrowing hours in the water.

PETER COOK, LABOR SENATOR: This is like a 747 full of people going down. 350-odd people drowned, and in horrific circumstances. Several were recovered. The stories of those recovered make terrible reading. It's the stuff of nightmare.

Their location at the time of rescue is pivotal to those determined to get to bottom of the tragedy.

PETER COOK: Because it is screaming for justice. This is a huge tragedy. This is 353 dead people on our watch, on our turf.

Tony Kevin's claim that it was Australia's responsibility has been consistently denied by Canberra. Now the former senior diplomat says he has compiled information that puts it beyond doubt. Calculating the prevailing currents relative to where the survivors were picked up, a professor of oceanography from Flinders University has pinpointed the likely spot the 'SIEV-X' sank to within a 20-mile radius. The mapping puts it in international waters, heavily patrolled at the time by the Australian defence forces as part of the Government's border protection operation Relex.

TONY KEVIN, FORMER AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMAT: We know from survivor accounts that they were being rescued as that aircraft flew overhead on the morning of Saturday, 20 October.

What's never been explained is how the daily RAAF surveillance flight failed to detect the stricken vessel. Senator Peter Cook was chairman of a committee of inquiry which, given the data available at the time, delivered an open finding. He says the latest information cannot be ignored.

PETER COOK: The fact now that it appears to have occurred in international waters and in a zone patrolled by the RAAF, suggests we should, I believe, look more thoroughly at what happened.

TONY KEVIN: The stench of this issue will not be relieved until there is a full-powers independent judicial inquiry with power to compel testimony from all witnesses.

When it reported last October, the Senate committee did call for a full judicial inquiry. The Government has not yet responded to the committee's report. And despite the new information, the Defence Department says it has no further comment on the 'SIEV-X'.