The first group of Australians to return home on specially chartered Qantas flights will finally be leaving London later today.
The flight is the first of eight, which have been chartered to repatriate about 5,000 Australians now stranded in Europe, India and South Africa.
But a total of about 32,000 Australians that want to return home are believed to still be stranded overseas.
Madeline Curtis, who is scheduled to be on the first flight, said she is just waiting to overcome one last hurdle.
"We're still actually waiting last minute for the results of the COVID test."
The Qantas 787 leaving London's Heathrow airport on Thursday, London time, will carry 175 passengers to Darwin.
Ms Curtis will be travelling with her husband Noam and their six-month-old baby, Benji, if their test results come back negative.
"We're super excited," she told Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.
"We've been trying to get home for a couple of months now."
The flight should land in Darwin on Friday and passengers will then isolate at the new Howard Springs facility before returning to the community.
People in the UK who have been identified as "vulnerable" by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have been prioritised for the flight.
Not everyone could leave when Australia began restricting entry to the country
Ms Curtis was 38 weeks pregnant when the Australian Government said in March that citizens overseas should return to the country.
"Then by the time the borders opened again, for Australia, we actually couldn't get a passport for Benji because he didn't have a birth certificate because of the lockdown over here.
"There weren't any registered births [in the UK] for quite a few months."
Australians like Ms Curtis have also been stranded because of the soaring cost of flights.
"Booking flights has been a nightmare," said Ms Curtis.
"We were looking at economy class flights for at least $5,000 [per person]."
Under the Federal Government scheme to charter flights, passengers will be paying for the flight but will be able to apply for Government grants and loans to help cover the upfront cost.
"This is supposedly a humanitarian mission and it's going to cost my family $10,000 [including quarantine costs] to get home on this flight, and with the expenses of quarantine, for us as a young family that's a lot of money."
But with case numbers of COVID-19 spiking in the UK and in particular in the North of Yorkshire where they have been living, Ms Curtis said she was relieved to be coming back to Australia.
"It's such a relief to know that we'll be leaving," she said.
"It's not going to be the most ideal scenario, but I think at the moment, we're just pretty grateful to have the opportunity to get on the plane."
