It is only the second time such a tally has been reached.
The 11th boat to arrive this month has pushed the monthly asylum-seeker tally to 1080, eclipsed only by August 2001 when 1645 people came, including the 433 rescued by the Tampa.
Border protection authorities intercepted the latest vessel, carrying 116 passengers and two crew members, on Saturday north of Christmas Island.
The arrivals have told immigration officials they are Afghani, Pakistani and Iranian.
Iranians comprised the largest group of asylum-seekers arriving by boat this year, overtaking Afghans who had dominated in recent years. Among the new arrivals there were at least seven young asylum-seekers claiming to be under 18 and travelling without a parent or guardian.
December's tally follows the 892 people who arrived on asylum-seeker boats in November and takes this year's total to 4573.
Last year, 6535 passengers arrived, eclipsing the 5516 who came in the Tampa year.
The surge in the past two months has come after the Gillard government in October shifted to a regime of onshore processing of asylum-seekers. The announcement came after the government failed to reach agreement with the opposition on legislation to reinstate its Malaysia Solution, which the High Court ruled invalid.
In a statement, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said HMAS Maryborough had "provided assistance" to the asylum-seeker vessel on Saturday after a request by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
The asylum-seekers have been sent to Christmas Island for security, identity and health checks. They arrived after a Christmas celebration concert inside the island's main detention centre. Most of the 400 men who attended were not Christian, but joined in enthusiastically. They wore Santa hats and held battery-operated candles while swaying and dancing to music.
The political parties struck a Christmas truce on border protection at a meeting on Friday, agreeing on further talks in the New Year aimed at ending the asylum-seeker deadlock. The government, which warned on Friday that "hundreds of people" in several illegal boats could arrive in Australia before the end of the year, has agreed to consider reopening the Howard-era asylum-seeker processing centre at Nauru in return for the opposition's support to pass legislation to resurrect the Malaysia Solution. But the Coalition remains firmly against the deal, which involves sending 800 asylum-seekers who arrive by boat for third-country processing in Malaysia in return for 4000 proven refugees.
Opposition border protection spokesman Michael Keenan said the latest boat arrival was a reminder that Labor had spent the year evading responsibility for the border protection crisis.
"People-smugglers have been able to watch Labor's policy gymnastics with glee as every backflip, broken promise and retreat invigorated their business model."
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