Assange's private reunion

Julian Assange and his mother Christine's reunion was captured exclusively by Sunshine Coast Daily's Kieran Campbell. Photo / Sunshine Coast Daily

Julian Assange jokes about the cold weather as he stands in the snow outside the mansion in the British countryside where he is under house arrest.

He has reason to be happy, with his arm around his Sunshine Coast mum in the -3C winter air.

Christine Assange was reunited with her 39-year-old son hours after his release from nine days in solitary confinement.

It's what she came to London for: to see her son freed and ready to fight an attempt by Swedish prosecutors to extradite him on sexual assault allegations.

The WikiLeaks founder fears the United States will soon issue an extradition warrant for charges of espionage for his role in leaking more than 250,000 classified government cables.

"It is certainly good to be out of solitary confinement - in a basement that was locked all the time," he said.

"However I'm still under house arrest and that's a serious business.

"There are other serious businesses that are going on in the United States as we speak."

Assange is a quietly charming guy, and tall, at least 193cm.

His mother stands next to him, completely chuffed. This is the first time since she arrived in London on Sunday that there is no sign of strain in her smile.

As we drove through the snow-covered countryside of east Britain, Christine Assange told me that she didn't need long to reconnect with her son.

She had brought him letters of support, soothing herbal tea and a stack of newspapers from home, including articles from the Sunshine Coast Daily.

She wanted to spend a few hours with her son before she flew out of Heathrow, back to Australia.

It was getting close to midnight (local time) when we arrived at the gate of Ellingham Hall, the Suffolk mansion where the High Court in London ruled Assange must stay.

He is the welcome Christmas guest of the mansion's owner, journalist Vaughan Smith.

Once mother and son have been reunited, Assange tells me he is looking forward to getting back into work for Wikileaks. "This is not the beginning of the end, it is the end of the very beginning."

Earlier in the night, I watched in my hotel room with his grinning mother as Assange made his first public speech following his release.

"I am just so relieved," she told me.

Before yesterday, Christine Assange had been restricted to short meetings with her son in a room at Wandsworth Prison.

His lawyers managed to raise the £200,000 ($423,000) cash security yesterday, a condition of his bail.

He is due back in court on January 11 for a case management session, with February 7 and 8 set down for his extradition hearing.

Outside the courthouse, Christine Assange spoke to hundreds of journalists from around the world, telling them with a smile that she could not wait to hold her son close.

"I had faith in the British justice system that the judge in the High Court would uphold the magistrate's decision to grant bail," she said.

"My faith has been confirmed."

She will return to Australia while her son has declared he will continue with his work with WikiLeaks.

"It has been heartening to see the tremendous support from Australia," Assange said.

"Previously I thought Australia existed as a physical country but not perhaps as a nation of people. That is conclusively untrue. Australia does exist as a nation of people."

- Sunshine Coast Daily