Australia has rescued eight children and grandchildren of two dead Australian Islamic State jihadists from a refugee camp in Syria and will bring them home.

In the first such repatriation by Australia, the children were fetched from a camp in northern Syria on Sunday and the government said it was working on bringing them back.

Aged between two and 18, those rescued include the three surviving children of Muslim convert Tara Nettleton and infamous jihadist Khaled Sharrouf, photographed standing next to a young son holding a severed human head in a picture that made global headlines in 2014.

The two daughters of his pregnant daughter, Zaynab Sharrouf, and the three offspring of slain fighter Yasin Rizvic were among the group set to be brought to Australia. Both men and their wives died in the conflict zone.