• Requirements, restrictions, rules and policies affecting the maritime industry at Australian ports
• General comments and links to updates on the current situation
• Australia Crew Change Summary and visas for seafarers
• Australia’s State / Territory Rules
• AVIATION: rules and restrictions
• Health rules in Plain English & also separately in Legal English

See: “Entering & Leaving Australia,” by the Federal Department of Home Affairs for the current situation at the Australian border.

REMEMBER: Australia is a federal country which means that there are State & Territory governments that can and do exercise extensive powers. Visitors are subject both to Federal AND local rules. Travel rules between States & Territories can change at anytime. For instance, there are numerous examples of people being stuck on the wrong side of an internal border after travel restrictions have been announced. Those people were then stuck for days or weeks, and even months. There have also been instances when fully laden passenger planes have taken off, only for the rules to change mid-flight, with the passengers later forced into quarantine or sent back to their point of departure.

Whether travel is easy or not very much depends upon the local situation (at both the place of origin and the place of destination) at the time of travel. Readers are strongly advised to check the rules in relevant jurisdiction (see links to each jurisdiction further below on this page). At the time of writing, there are no major internal restrictions on travel. Bear in mind that restrictions can be re-imposed at any time.

• Details of the latest FEDERAL restrictions can be found here
• Details of STATE / TERRITORY rules can be found here

Email: ad***@sh***************.au

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Australia’s COVID situation is in a constant state of change. Owing to the size of the continent, the distance between cities, the low population density and the fragmented (and often contradictory) nature of Federal / State government, an outbreak of COVID can be raging in one part of the country and completely absent everywhere else. Travel to / from and around the COVID-infected area can be very difficult whereas travel to / from and around the COVID-free parts can be easy.

Readers are strongly advised to inform themselves of the current situation in Australia before making any travel plans.

The following sources of information are the most accurate, and most frequently updated, in relation to Australia’s COVID-situation:

• Homepage of the Federal Department of Health
• Coronavirus page – all about the virus, symptoms, health risks to different groups
• Various resources – many different resources, factsheets etc on many different aspects of COVID
• Advice to the international maritime industry during COVID-19 (Note: AMSA, not the Dept of Health).
  

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Commercial mariners may enter and depart Australia with a Transit Visa and a Maritime Crew Visa (if arriving by air) or with a Maritime Crew Visa alone if entering by sea.

Note: the phrase “commercial mariners” means seafarers working as maritime crew on freight-carrying ships (it also includes related marine service providing mariners e.g. marine pilots). None of the commentary on this page relates to cruise ship crew, recreational mariners (yachts etc) or people who have booked passage aboard a freighter as a means of personal travel and who are not, themselves, working as part of the ship’s crew.

Seafarers must lodge a fully documented and complete application at least four weeks before departing for Australia to give the authorities time to process the application. Remember: the application may be delayed or refused.

Sometimes the authorities may ask for additional information to support an application. Requested information must be provided as soon as possible; the authorities will not grant a visa until this is done.

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Federal, State and Territory rules will all apply at the same time. Seafarers will need to check the relevant Federal rules (see other segments and links on this page) and also the rules of the States and Territories to which they are planning to travel. Nearly all (if not all) of the former restrictions, rules etc have been scrapped. Many of the sector-specific resources  published by the States and Territories have been retired.

Readers are advised to review the website of the main airlines and airports prior to booking flights:

Qantas 

Adelaide (South Australia)

Brisbane (Queensland)

Melbourne (Victoria)

Perth (Western Australia)

Sydney (New South Wales)

Readers may also find it useful to review the news pages of the trade website Australian Aviation especially its “Airlines” and its “Airports” sections. 

The most up-to-date and comprehensive guide to border and travel restrictions across Australia can be found here at the Federal Department of Health. After you click that link, scroll down to find “State and territory travel restrictions”.

NOTE: the information found by following the below links are largely written by, and for, lawyers. Speakers of English as a second language may well find this legally-focused information very difficult to understand. Even native speakers of normal English find Legal English difficult to understand!