An eight-year-old boy born in Australia has been deported from Turkey along with his family after his Indonesian father allegedly attempted to join the Islamic State group.

The family is being held in Jakarta by counter-terror officers there, Bali police deputy chief commissioner Hengky Widjaya said.

Indonesian authorities said the boy was born in South Australia in 2009 while his father was studying for a Masters degree at university there.

Police said the couple travelled to Turkey via Malaysia with their three children because the 39-year-old father, who has been named as Triono, wanted to be an IS fighter.

Triono and his wife were arrested in an IS safe house in Istanbul on January 16.

They were among 25 Indonesians who have been deported from Turkey this month for links to IS.

The family were arrested by counter-terrorism officers on Saturday when they landed in Denpasar, Bali.

Indonesian police said the family left Jakarta in August on a Garuda flight to Thailand after their alleged IS contact told them the indirect route was the best way to avoid detection.

Mr Widjaya said the Indonesian contact in Thailand was also an activist with the Islamic Defenders’ Front — known by the Indonesian acronym FPI — the radical Islamist organisation that has been leading the push for the jailing of Jakarta’s Christian Governor, Ahok.

It is estimated about 600 Indonesians have gone to Syria to join IS. A relatively small number are fighters — the majority are believed to be in support roles or are family members of the combatants.

Indonesian counter-terror authorities say that between 2014 and 2016, 213 Indonesians have been deported from Turkey for planning to cross the border to Syria.

-ABC