Maritime Safety Queensland and Poseidon Sea Pilots did not have a process to jointly and effectively identify and risk assess the hazards to shipping and pilotage that were outside normal environmental conditions.
Maritime Safety Queensland and Poseidon Sea Pilots have established formal procedures for involving key port stakeholders in collaborative risk assessment of the hazards to shipping and pilotage associated with significant weather events. These procedures should result in appropriate controls being identified and implemented by the responsible stakeholders to mitigate risks to port safety posed by any future weather events.
On 15 January 2024, Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) advised the ATSB that in response to the breakaway of the oil tanker CSC Friendship in February 2022 and these breakaways in May 2022, it had taken the following safety action.
Between July and October 2022, MSQ commissioned several investigations and studies into the breakaways. These included mooring and river current analyses for the May breakaways by a specialist provider of hydrodynamic modelling to simulate the conditions and identify contributing factors.
Throughout 2022 and 2023, MSQ engaged with multiple port stakeholders, including Poseidon Sea Pilots (PSP), terminal operators, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and Seqwater to improve collaborative planning for, and response to, extreme weather events, including river flood. These engagements included a November 2022 workshop with Fisherman Islands container terminal operators to review the breakaways and improve mooring and scheduling practices. Additionally, MSQ conducted simulation studies of ship movements under flood conditions with PSP and the port’s towage provider.
Since the breakaways, MSQ has gradually amended its procedures for responding to extreme and adverse weather events. These included changes to its port procedures and information for shipping manual, vessel traffic service extreme weather event procedure and the development of an extreme weather event aide memoire. From late 2023, these procedures reflected the Queensland Government’s adoption of the Australian Warning System (AWS).
In December 2024, MSQ advised the ATSB that it had established the Port of Brisbane Maritime Emergency Working Group (MEWG) and developed guidelines for its role and function for responding to port emergencies, including river flood and dam water releases. The MEWG included representatives from MSQ, Port of Brisbane and PSP. The guidelines provided that the group is to be convened by the regional harbour master whenever warnings and notifications relating to severe weather, river flood or dam water releases are issued, or when any other port emergency develops. The MEWG was to facilitate timely and collective identification and assessment of potential hazards to port safety posed by such events so that appropriate controls could be agreed upon and implemented by the group’s members.
Additionally, MSQ has installed 3 additional current meters in the river to provide increased real time current flow information. A software application has been established to collate the data from these meters on a single dashboard and MSQ has begun rolling-out access to this system to key port stakeholders, including PSP.
On 7 May 2024, PSP advised the ATSB that it had updated its pilotage operations safety management system manual to include a section on pilotage operations during extreme weather events. The new section included information about river flood and high current flows and provided that under such conditions, ship movements may be subject to restrictions and operating limits at short notice, as advised by VTS. Additionally, PSP also provided input for changes to MSQ’s standard port procedures, including the joint development of procedures for movements to and from various berths under flood conditions using MSQ’s bridge/ship simulator.
In December 2024, PSP further advised the ATSB that since the breakaways, it had worked closely with MSQ to establish a formal and collaborative risk management approach for identifying and assessing hazards to shipping outside of normal environmental conditions. This safety action resulted in the development of a detailed procedure for collectively managing weather-related events with other port stakeholders, including MSQ. The procedure complemented the MEWG guidelines and identified specific trigger points and processes for responding to escalating weather situations, such as those heralded by river flood warnings, increased current flows and dam water release notifications.
The weather event management procedure also established a PSP Emergency Management Response Team and detailed the roles and responsibilities of key personnel for planning and managing pilotage operations when significant weather events arise.
