CovidSafe harbours around the nation

Australian cargo ports have been remarkably successful in ensuring they do not introduce Covid-19 into the community from foreign ships and crew.

Australian port authorities and shipping lines have worked well together to stop Covid-19 spreading. Picture: NSW Ports

Australian cargo ports have been remarkably successful in ensuring they do not introduce Covid-19 into the community from foreign ships and crew.

One exception was an incident in Cairns last month, when a reef pilot contracted Covid-19 from the crew of an overseas vessel he had navigated through the Great Barrier Reef. He subsequently infected a Cairns taxi driver, which led to a snap three-day lockdown in the northern Australian town.

But as Ports Australia chief executive Mike Gallacher points out, that was an exception.

“When you consider that tens of thousands of ship arrivals that have occurred through Covid right around the country, it’s a testament to the sector, particularly given that on every vessel, Australian pilots enter those vessels to safely bring them to harbour,” Gallacher says.

This presents a particular problem in northern Queensland, where pilots might need to spend a couple of days on board to thread a boat through the Great Barrier Reef, which also obviously involves sleeping, eating and using the boat’s facilities.

Maritime Safety Queensland has introduced “rigorous Covid-19 safe plans” for pilots while on board visiting vessels.

As a result, pilots don’t need to quarantine after boarding a foreign vessel, unless there is a suspicion of Covid-19.

“If a marine pilot has been on board a vessel where crew have Covid-19 symptoms, they are required to self-quarantine until the maritime crew receives a negative Covid-19 test,” Maritime Safety Queensland said.

Gallacher says Australian port authorities and shipping lines have worked well together to stop Covid-19 spreading. For their part, the shipping lines are also concerned about the coronavirus risk and want to ensure their crew isn’t infected by visits from onshore. The pandemic is particularly hard on some international crews. While they were initially spared from the pandemic when it started spreading around the globe in early 2020 because of their isolation, crews are not allowed off their boats at many destinations and so have been on board for many months.

Ports Australia is a signatory to the Neptune Agreement, which calls on governments around the world to recognise the seafarers’ plight and do more to help them.

NSW Ports chief executive Marika Calfas says Australia’s relative geographic isolation helps the maritime sector minimise the spread of Covid-19, because by the time a ship arrives in NSW from a foreign port, it’s generally been on the water for a week, allowing more time for coronavirus symptoms to show if any crew members have the virus.

“There’s a process in place in NSW whereby if any of the crew have Covid-like symptoms, tests will be taken to the ship out of port and the crew will be tested. And they need to return a negative test before the ship is permitted to enter,” Calfas says.

“So that adds another layer of protection.”

When vessels arrive at the dock, NSW Ports does not allow crew to leave the vessel other than for core activities that must be undertaken, and even then they cannot go more than 13m from the ship. Other ports have similar provisions.

“So they’re not allowed out and they don’t interface closely with shore workers at the port,” Calfas says. “So even where port workers have to go on board a ship, there’s a separation between the crew and the port workers.”

NSW Ports has also split workers such as pilots and cutter crews into two shifts, which don’t mix. That way if one shift has to isolate because of a Covid-19 scare, the other half of the workforce is still available to help keep Australia’s international trade going.