A record 10,000 asylum seekers were held in detention centres and in the Australian community in November, figures released by the immigration department reveal.
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It is the highest number recorded since mandatory detention began in 1990.
But the detention snapshot, taken on December 31, shows pressure on the system eased in the final month of 2012 as the monsoon season took hold, with the number of people detained down 1212 to 9059, including 1221 children.
Children are not held in mainstream detention centres but in alternative forms of detention and in residential housing, including 614 who are on Christmas Island.
The department says that 8759 people arrived in Australia by boat or by air in December, comprising 96 per cent of those held in immigration detention.
Another 294 people were taken into detention after overstaying their visas or breaching their visa conditions.
In 2008, then immigration minister Chris Evans said that the detention of asylum seekers should be used only ''as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time''.
But as the number of people coming to Australia by boat has ballooned in recent years so, too, has the number of people in long-term detention.
In December, 923 people had been detained for more than 12 months, and 591 people had been held for more than two years. It is understood that more than 50 people have been found to be refugees but have been given a negative ASIO assessment.
Pamela Curr, from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said asylum seekers who had been given both positive refugee and security decisions should be released on protection visas.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that in December, 59 people had been held for more than two years.
