History will be made next week when Australia ships the world’s first cargo of liquid hydrogen, an event that will mark a milestone in a looming transformation of exports with one of the country’s most important partners amid the energy transition.

The first ever liquefied hydrogen tanker, the Suiso Frontier, docked at the port of Hastings on Thursday and is due to depart again within a week with its shipment of hydrogen, derived from a $500 million Japanese-backed pilot project tapping the vast but carbon-intensive brown coal fields of the Latrobe Valley.