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Activities in States and the Northern Territory

Victoria

Significant Incidents

There were no significant incidents in Victoria during the reporting period.

New Or Updated Contingency Plans

The Victorian Marine Pollution Contingency Plan (VicPlan) and regional plans have been placed on the Marine Safety Victoria (MSV) website.

Training

During the reporting period, MSV delivered two Introduction to Oil Spill Response courses, three Equipment Operator courses, three Shoreline Assessment and Clean up courses, one Media course, one Finance and Adminstration course and one AIIMS/OSRICS course. MSV also delivered three one-day Equipment Operator Refresher exercises and one Shoreline Clean up refresher exercise.

Exercises

MSV facilitated several regional risk assessment exercises during the reporting period as well as a desktop exercise in Westerport and Portland. A chemical desktop exercise was held in Port Phillip.

MSV staff als particpated in the National Plan Biennial Exercise Van Diemen in September 2006.

Equipment acquisition

No equipment was purchased during the 2006-2007 financial year. All MSV's marine pollution response vessel trailers have been refurbished.

Administrative changes in the State response arrangements

In March 2007, Stephen Turner resigned as Manager Marine Pollution Response to take up a position within Public Transport Safety in Victoria.

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New South Wales

Significant Incidents

The grounding of the Pasha Bulker at Newcastle on 8 June 2007 was the only significant incidentt during the reporting period.

New or Updated Contingency Plans

The NSW State Waters Marine Oil and Chemical Spill Contingency Plan was amended to reflect the new arrangements for responding to marine oil and chemical spills in NSW State waters.

NSW Maritime was formally recognised in the NSW Disaster Plan as the combat agency for marine oil and chemical response emergencies. An emergency is a response requiring a significant multi-agency response that requires coordination at the Marine Pollution Controller level.

Exercises

NSW Maritime carried out equipment deployment exercises in Eden in March 2007 and Yamba in August 2006 and April 2007.

Newcastle Port Corporation conducted their annual exercise in October 2006.

Port Kembla Port Corporation conducted their annual equipment deployment and desktop exercise in November 2006.

Sydney Ports Corporation conducted an equipment and desktop exercise with Caltex in November 2006 and Shell in April 2007.

Equipment Acquisition

Sydney Ports Corporation purchased 500 metres of GP750 boom and 600 metres of GP500 boom. Numerous boom modules for transportation purposes and storage were either purchased or manufactured.

State Response Arrangements

New arrangements for responding to marine oil and chemical spills came into operation on 1 January 2007. NSW Maritime is now responsible for responding to marine oil and chemical spills in State waters from the Queensland border to Fingal Head at Port Stephens, this area includes the Port of Yamba, and from Gerroa on the south coast to the Victorian border, this area includes the Port of Eden.

Newcastle Port Corporation is responsible for responding to oil and chemical spills in its port area and a reduced area of State waters from Fingal Head north of the port to Catherine Hill Bay to the south of the port.

The areas for which Sydney Ports Corporation is responsible remains unchanged, being its port waters in Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay and State waters form Catherine Hill Bay north of the port to Garie Beach to the south of Port Botany.

Port Kembla Port Corporation is responsible for responding to oil and chemical spills in its port area and a reduced area of State waters from Garie Beach north of the port to Gerroa to the south of the port.

State Prosecutions

One prosecution under the Marine Pollution Act was completed during the reporting period. The owner of the Pacific Onyx was convicted of spilling about two tonnes of crude oil into Botany Bay at 2 Kurnell on 14 November 1999. The owner was fined $42,000 on 16 April 2007. Proceedings against the Master were discharged without conviction.

Oil Spill Response Atlas

No work was done on updating any of the themes in the OSRA. NSW Maritime engaged a consultant to prepare a report on options and issues that need to be addressed in order to migrate the OSRA to ArcGIS and integrate the OSRA data storage and maintenance on the NSW Maritime ArcGIS server.

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South Australia

Significant Incidents

There were no significant incidents in South Australia. Several smaller incidents and near misses were reported and rectified.

New or Updated Contingency Plans

The review of the South Australian Marine Spill Contingency Action Plan (SAMSCAP) is complete and is currently undergoing format editing before being released for comment.

Training

Oil spill response training was provided in the Ports of Thevenard, Lincoln and Whyalla by the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (DTEI).

Finance and Adminstration training was provided internally for DTEI staff.

Local Government Councils (Coastal and some Riverland) were visited and presented an introduction to oil spill management in South Australia.

An oil spill planning workshop was hosted by DTEI for all relevant government agencies in June 2007.

Exercises

Two exercises were conducted during the reporting period. Exercise "Black Wave", a desktop exercise implementing the National Plan was conducted on 26 February 2007. A desktop exercise responding to a chemical spill "XAN-Spill" was conducted on 3 May 2007.

Equipment

No additional equipment was acquired in the reporting period.

Adminstrative Changes in the State Response Arrangements

The Director, Transport Safety Regulation was appointed the State Marine Pollution Controller and Chair of the State Pollution Committee in January 2007. The Managers of Transport Safety Compliance and Commercial Marine Services are the State Incident Controllers on a rotational basis and both deputise as the State Marine Pollution Controller as required and as Chair for the State Pollution Committee.

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Tasmania

Significant Incidents

The chemical tanker Siteam Anja allegedly discharged a large amount of carbon soot into the environment during the night of 15 June 2007 whilst berthed at Self’s Point wharf to discharge its cargo of fuel. A number of residences and motor vehicles in that area were impacted by the alleged discharge and large rafts of floating black material were observed on the Derwent River in both Lindisfarne Bay and Rose Bay.

Investigations into this matter are continuing and a Complaint / Summons was issued on 23 July 2007 to the master of the ship when it returned to Hobart (Self’s Point).

New Or Updated Contingency Plans

The Tasmanian Oiled Wildlife Response Plan was finalised during this period.

Concurrent with the review of the Tasmanian Marine Oil Pollution Contingency Plan, work is proceeding to finalise the revised Deed between the Department of Tourism, Arts and the Environment, Marine and Safety Tasmania and the Tasmanian Ports Corporation.

It is intended that this Deed will, inter alia, clarify the responsibilities of the State and the Tasmanian Ports Corporation in the event of a marine pollution incident in State waters.

Training

With the significant assistance of AMSA, various training courses were undertaken in the north and south of the State in the lead up to Exercise Van Dieman on 6 September 2006.

Exercises

Tasmania hosted the National Plan Exercise 2006 (Exercise Van Dieman) at the Port of Devonport on 6 September 2006.

Desktop Exercise Starfish was held in Hobart on 21 February 2007. This exercise was designed to test the application of the Tasmanian Marine Chemical Spill Contingency Plan to a hypothetical spill of concentrated sulphuric acid from a ship aground in the Derwent River.

Equipment Acquisition

No additional response equipment has been acquired by the State this financial year. Minor modifications have been made to the helicopter spray buckets in the State (by the addition of a hand rail and step) to improve operability from an OHS perspective.

Adminstrative Changes in the State Response Arrangements

Mr John Mollison has been appointed Deputy General Manager of the Environment Division in the Department of Tourism, Arts and the Environment. Mr Mollison is now also the alternative Chair of the statutory State Marine Pollution Committee which is established under the Tasmanian Pollution of Waters by Oil and Noxious Substances Act 1987.

Other Matters

Work is proceeding to review the Tasmanian Pollution of Waters by Oil and Noxious Substances Act 1987 to ensure that that legislation will continue to reflect developments with the national model legislation concerning Australia’s MARPOL obligations.

Revision of the relevant Regulations under this legislation is almost complete.

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Queensland

Significant Incidents

No significant incidents occurred in Queensland waters during the year. Of the 57 smaller spills reported to Maritime Safety Queensland:

35% of spills occurred in within ports
60% of spills occurred in Queensland Coastal waters outside of ports
5% of spills occurred outside of Queensland coastal waters but within Australia's territorial sea
84% of reported spills were less than 5 litres
67% were spills of either diesel fuel or other light oil

These figures show a general decrease in the number and severity of reported spills.

The most serious marine pollution incident involved a spill of approximately 200 litres of heavy fuel oil from a disused pipeline in Townsville Harbour in October. The spill, which impacted a small area within the harbour, was successfully cleaned up by response teams from Maritime Safety Queensland and Townsville Port Authority.

Maritime Safety Queensland also assisted the Environmental Protection Agency of Queensland with response to a large land sourced spill of fuel oil from a burst pipeline in Townsville during November.

New Or Updated Contingency Plans

The Queensland Coastal Contingency Action Plan was updated and a copy of Queensland's oiled wildlife response plan included in the document.

Training

During the year Maritime Safety Queensland continued to deliver high quality competency based training for oil spill responders throughout the state.

A specialist administration support course was also developed by Maritime Safety Queensland and delivered to oil spill response administration personnel.

A summary of training carried out by Maritime Safety Queensland is shown below.

Course Type	Trained 2006/2007	Total Trained/5 years
Introduction to Oil Spill Response	120	657
Level 3 Oil Spill Responder	75	389
Level 4 Oil Spill Responder	17	45
Oil Spill Response Adminstration	91	91

Exercises

A total of five oil spill response exercises were held in Queensland during the year. The exercises were held in the ports of Mackay, Townsville, Cairns and Cooktown and at Rosslyn Bay.

Equipment Acquisition

First strike response equipment, including general purposee boom, a weir skimmer and recovered oil storage tank was delivered to Rosslyn Bay Boat Harbour in Central Queensland.

A program of half-life refits for Maritime Safety Queensland's fleet of Marco oil recovery vessels continued. Work on the Brisbane based Tusk was completed in December and the vessel is once again ready to respond to incidents throughout Queensland and further a field if required.

Administrative changes in the State response arrangements

Pollution response arrangements were enhanced by the endorsement of a Memorandum of Understanding between Maritime Safety Queensland and the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service on response to ship-sourced chemical spills. The agreement, which was signed in February 2007, formalises the cooperative pollution response arrangements between both agencies.

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Western Australia

Significant Incidents

Whilst no significant incidents occurred in Western Australia, the Department for Planning and Infrastructure (DPI) did receive reports of several minor spills during the reporting period, which were successfully monitored and cleaned up.

New Or Updated Contingency Plans

Offshore oil and gas facility Oil Spill Contingency Plans (OSCP) that were reviewed by DPI’s Marine Environment Protection Unit (MEPU) over the last year were:

Santos Wilcraft Drilling Campaign 2007 OSCP
Santos Fletcher 1 OSCP
Koolan Island Adsteam OSCP
Eni Australia Blacktip North-1 OSCP
Inpex Browse Ichthys Gas Field Development OSCP
ROC Oil Cliff Head Oil Field Operation OSCP
TAP Oil Amulet 1 Drilling Operations OSCP
Woodside Carnarvon Basin OSCP
Apache Energy North West Shelf OSCP
BHPB Stybarrow Development Offshore Hook-up and Commissioning Phase OSCP
Dampier Port Authority

Assistance was also provided to Adsteam for the Koolan Island port development OSCP and Dampier Port Authority in the review and update of their OSCP.

The WestPlan Marine Oil Pollution was revised and circulated and the Western Australian Oiled Wildlife Response Plan was completed and attached to WestPlan as a sub plan.

Training

During 2006 - 2007 the Metro State Response Team has convened on a monthly basis to undertake a day of training. Over 50 members are registered on the team; average attendance at monthly training sessions is ten.

Work is being undertaken to build a North West Response Team with the Dampier Port Authority taking on the main coordination role.

Training delivered by the unit:

Training Delivered	Location	Date
Operator Level Workshop	Port Hedland	25 - 27 July 2006
Admin & Finance Workshop	Dampier	1 August 2006
Operator Level Workshop (Theory only)	Dampier	22 - 23 August 2006
OSRA Workshop	Dampier	24 August 2006
Operator Level Workshop	Exmouth	6 - 7 November 2006
Operator Level Workshop	Esperance	15 - 16 November 2006
Admin & Finance Workshop	Fremantle	6 December 2006
Operator Level Workshop	Useless Loop	11 - 13 December 2006
Operator Level Workshop	Fremantle	16 - 18 January 2007
Operator Level Workshop	Fremantle	23 January 2007
Oil Sampling for RTO Conference	Fremantle	16 May 2007

Participants included representatives from DPI, port authorities, WA police, FESA, oil and shipping industries along with their support industries.

Equipment Acquisitions

Exmouth has received an additional set of foreshore cleaning equipment for 30 personnel, provided by DPI as a supplement to industry’s equipment stockpile.

A dispersant spray system, usable both from a helicopter and a vessel has been developed and built in cooperation between Polyline Industries and DPI. This system is designated to reinforce the oil spill response capacity at the North West Shelf.

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Northern Territory

Significant Incidents

There were no significant oil spills in Northern Territory waters over the 2006-2007 reporting period.

New or Updated Contingency Plans

The NT Contingency Plan is currently undergoing a major revision. As a result the Management Committee is planning to convene in early 2008.

Training

Two oil spill training exercises were conducted in 2006-2007. These were:

Perkins Shipping - Fuel Transfer Exercise to test new transfer procedures, 30 July 2006
Darwin Port Corporation - Oil Spill Equipment and Operators training, 24 - 25 October 2006

Two representatives from the Northern Territory attended the AMSA Chemical Spill Response Level 2 course in Brisbane in June 2007.

Equipment Acquisition

No additional equipment was acquired by the Northern Territory during the reporting period.

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last updated:20 December 2007