Faulty GPS nearly drove bulk carrier into the Great Barrier Reef

A two-year investigation into the near grounding of a bulk carrier in the Great Barrier Reef has found a faulty GPS unit was to blame.

In May 2022, the 225-metre Rosco Poplar was transiting through Hydrographers Passage, off the north Queensland coast, with a coastal pilot helping the crew navigate the waters safely.

Unbeknownst to the humans on board, one of the ship’s three GPS units malfunctioned and started supplying incorrect data.

The Rosco Poplar’s navigational equipment.Credit: Australian Transport Safety Bureau

The ship, which has a dead weight of 82,331 tonnes, came within 200 metres of Bond Reef - where the normal recommended clearance is 1.5 kilometres.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau found the coastal pilot should have relied on a portable GPS unit - independent of the ship’s sensors - to track their progress.

There was also a communication breakdown between the pilot and the crew - one of whom was “given tasks which distracted them from their duties for monitoring the passage plan” - and no-one maintaining a proper lookout.

“Compulsory coastal pilotage remains an essential defence against serious shipping accidents in the Great Barrier Reef,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said on Friday.

“It is therefore important that coastal pilots are up to standard – and any assessment system that assures those standards must produce consistent and accurate outcomes.

“If sufficient measures are not implemented to ensure assessment standards are interpreted and applied consistently – irrespective of the assessor – the outcomes are unreliable.”