Whether it’s Cunard line’s Queen Elizabeth with her 2000 passengers, a cargo ship with 10,000 containers or a tanker with the fuel we use every day, Port Phillip Sea Pilots work around the clock to keep the...
Our PPU laptops have found a new home at Cottage by the Sea, supporting children learning from home during this challenging time of COVID isolation. ...
PPSP stands with those seafarers who have sacrificed time with their families to help ensure the economic survival of global trade during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are over 150,000 seafarers trapped at sea by the COVID-19...
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SAFELY MANOEUVER A BIG SHIP UP THE YARRA RIVER? EXPERIENCE – Years of training including observation of senior pilots, tug utilisation and manoeuvring simulations. SYSTEMS – A systemised approach including: documented pre-arrival...
John Joubert PDO (Pilot Despatch Officer) has recently retired from PPSP where he played an integral role ensuring our operation ran as efficiently as a swiss watch. On asking John for a memory to share during...
If you’ve seen a funny looking shape on the horizon in Port Phillip, it’s very possibly the rig “Ocean Onyx” awaiting its next job. The heavy lift ship “Blue Marlin” carried the rig on deck and...
Our book release ”Pilot on Board” by Brendan Moloney celebrates Port Philip Sea Pilots 175th anniversary and includes, The age of sails Piracy in Port Phillip Lost at sea The threat of war and much...
PPSP has developed a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan BCP to deal with the rapidly evolving COVID-19 Pandemic The development and implementation of this plan has been a collaborative effort between our entire team. The effectiveness of...
Port Phillip Sea Pilots are excited to welcome “PV Petrel III” to its fleet of purpose built, highly efficient Pilot Vessels that service the Port of Melbourne, Western Port and Geelong. Safety of our pilots in...
STEADY AS SHE GOES, The Mavis III is lowered on to her new home inside the Queenscliss Maritime Museum grounds. A new Mavis has arrived in Queenscliff and she's set to turn people's heads - all...
Farewell to PV Mavis III, built in 1994, she serviced Port Phillip Bay and Heads for 26 years. Mavis was one of the last Pilot Vessels to be built in house at Queenscliff by past...
Port Phillip Sea Pilots are delighted that a recent charity event run by Point Lonsdale Board Riders raised $10000 for the Victorian bushfire appeal. We are humbled that a large part of that money was...
On the morning of the 22nd of February, Port Phillip Sea Pilots PDO (Pilot Despatch Officer) over heard a call for assistance from a local cray fisherman in the vicinity of Point Nepean, he reported...
PPSP in co-ordination with Svitzer Australia and Victoria Ports Corporation Melbourne recently conducted verification simulation exercises to evaluate the possibility of manoeuvring larger ships into the Port of Melbourne. These simulations assess challenging manoeuvres and enable all parties...
Peter Mitchell, Mornington Peninsula Leader, July 5, 2019 5:00pm Sea pilots are a common sight for anyone who lives on the Mornington Peninsula. Cast your gaze towards Port Phillip Bay and you’ll see them chugging along the...
From between the heads of Port Phillip Bay, the Prominent Ace, a giant container ship, is a blip on the horizon that could be mistaken for a whitecap. It gradually looms into fuller view in...
Imagine having to bring a 100,000 tons ship into port in rough weather and heavy seas, navigating through a narrow, rocky passage bordered by dangerous reefs. Port Phillip Bay, which forms the entrance to the Port...
Captain Charles Griffiths (pictured) will travel to Malaysia later this month with six Australian marine pilots. They will finish a competency audit at the Star Cruises training simulator in Port Klang. Australian and New Zealand pilots are...
Cost-cutting by governments around the world through the privatisation of marine safety bodies has been fiercely criticised by maritime pilots. More than 400 delegates from around the world at the XVth International Maritime Pilots’ Association Congress...
A US PILOT believes his Australian counterparts are far ahead of pilots in most other nations in terms and acceptance of innovation. In areas such as Bridge Resource Management and the study of fatigue, he...
Neil Morrison: commercial benefits of helicopters A three-month trial to test the transfer of pilots by helicopter to waiting vessels in Newcastle began late last month and 56 transfers have been conducted without a hitch. One of...
A BILL that provides for an open competition in the provision of pilotage services in Victorian ports has been passed in the state parliament – but doubts remain over how the state government sees competition...
PORT Phillip Sea Pilots this week placed an order for a new $1.5 million pilot launch with Chivers Marine in Western Australia. PPSP’s managing director Captain Charles Griffiths said: “The vessel is similar in appearance to...
Victoria III Launch The Port Phillip Sea Pilots have added a new fast launch to their fleet. The 13 meter Victoria III, has a 26 knot service speed, and is powered by a Cummins diesel engine,...
THE lighthouse at Point Lonsdale, a welcome sight for seafarers almost all this century, is in danger of losing its crew to the march oft technology. A video surveillance system may replace lighthouse keepers under reforms...
MELBOURNE: Victorian Roads and Ports Minister Geoff Craige’s wife, Anette, stole the limelight from her husband on Sunday when she took the helm of Port Phillip Sea Pilot’s sleek new launch, Hawk IV. Mrs Craige, who...
Tom Delaney, rewarded for heroic rescue RESCUING people from the sea is second nature to well-knows Flinders identity Tom Delaney, who knows the local waters "like the back of his hand" Tom, 63, has lost count of...
MELBOURNE: The Port Phillip Sea Pilots will mark their 150 years anniversary in June and July 1989. Licensed pilots have been available at Port Phillip Heads since 1839, when merchants petitioned Governor George Gibb of New...
Harbor pilot, Captain Paul RInge: “You get to do the best part – berthing and unberthing.- Picture: Greg Scullin Piloting the polish tall ship Dar Mlodziezy into Princes Pier last week was, according to Captain Paul...
At least 80 percent of Port Phillip sea pilots who retired between 1975 and 1981 were forced to quit because of ill health. And almost half of those pilots died within a year of retirement as...
The Victorian Government may put up the money needed to keep the 100-year-old ketch Hawk in Melbourne. The Ship’s owner-skipper Capt. Jacques Sapir said yesterday he has been advised through the Premier’s Department to postpone sailing...
The 99-year-old ketch Hawk sails back to Melbourne yesterday after an absence of many years. The Hawks was one of the last pilot schooners to operate from Port Phillip Heads, giving way to a steam...
LAUNCESTON. – When the 65m. Wyuna slipped into berth at Launceston late last month, the six pilots and nine master mariners on board witnessed the end of an era – and the start of a...
The Australian Maritime College has bought the former Port Phillip pilot ship Wyuna as a training vessel. Since 1975, the Wyuna has been anchored off Queenscliff serving as an accommodation ship for the Pot Phillip Sea...
Capt. Nobile (right) recieves his silver dish farewell gift from Capt. Colin Springall. A MAN who guided about 3500 ships through the notorious Port Phillip Bay rip has put away his charts for the last time...
The Port Phillip Sea Pilots yesterday took delivery of their newest launch, the 40-foot (13-metre) Ranger. Ranger will be the third launch of its type to be commissioned by the pilots and will join the Hawk...
Helicopters could be used to drop pilots into ships waiting to go through the Heads. The helicopters would either land on the ships deck or hover above while the pilot was winched down into the ship. But...
For the first time in this port 4 tugs were needed to berth a mail liner at a Port Melbourne yesterday afternoon when a squally southerly wind held the Mooltan off Station Pier for more than half an hour and a half. The only...
The Sea Heaves to the smothered rumble of a heavy detonation as half a tonne of explosives is fired to deepen the Rip channel between Fort Nepean and Point Lonsdale. Below a suction dredger working inside the heads of Port Phillip Bay removing silt....
Giant liner berths Records easily broken Welcomed by a host of yachts launches and small craft, the new express liner Dominion Monarch berth at Port Melbourne yesterday. After a record-breaking voyage from England. It is estimated that...
After passing 8000 ships through Port Phillip heads Captain Clifford Wilford Palmer looks more distrustfully at the Rip than when he first crossed it. Senior pilot at the Port Phillip Sea Pilot Service Captain Palmer, who...
There is a fascination about the work of a pilot, which all lovers of the sea recognised. The writer of this article describes his little-known daily routine and shows that these winter days there are more comfortable occupations than...
Staggered ashore to sleep for hours before help came Sorrento Friday “it seems like a terrible nightmare to me now said John Johansson 35, seamen in the pilot service from the bed of the Sorento police station tonight....
At the meeting of the Marine Board yesterday reference was made to the good work done by the Port Phillip Sea Pilots. The following resolution moved by Mr R Dickens, was adopted unanimously; "That in the view of the weather conditions which...
Taking the Pilot, July 27, 1881, wood engraving. State Library of Victoria, image No: mp004608 Boarding an incoming ship outside the Heads was, and still is, perhaps the most dangerous part of a sea pilot’s life. ...
Wreck of the pilot boat Rip. “She was standing out through the broken water at the entrance to Port Phillip Heads, heavy seas continually breaking on board, when, in attempting to wear, she was struck...