CANBERRA, ACT, Aug. 21 -- Geoscience Australia issued the following news release:

A container ship more than a third of a kilometre long. No view of the wharf from the bridge. Less than half a metre between the hull and the bay floor. Thousands of containers on board, and a berthing position that must be met with centimetre-level precision.

In these conditions, positioning isn't just important. It's essential.

At Port Phillip Bay, Australia's busiest container port, pilots rely on Geoscience Australia's precise positioning services to support their work to safely guide a constant stream of container ships that connect Australian businesses to global markets.

Their confidence in this technology is reflected in their decisions. Having proved its accuracy, reliability and availability, the Port Phillip Bay pilots recently transitioned from commercial positioning providers to Geoscience Australia's services exclusively - joining thousands of Australians who can access the same services free of charge.

The pilots use a combination of the Real Time Kinematic (RTK) service and the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN). These are free and open services which give decimetre-accurate positioning correction and are provided by Geoscience Australia's Positioning Australia program.

This government-provided service has replaced three commercial positioning licences that required coordination across the pilot fleet in the midst of busy operations.

"That was clunky. If others were logged in and they had to physically log out to let someone else with a high-risk vessel log in - it wasn't really a very good solution for us," recalled marine pilot and Port Phillip Bay Sea Pilots Managing Director Michael Hanson.

"Now everyone's set up. It's a seamless and cost-effective option for us."

Such a vote of confidence is no small matter when it comes to Australia's crucial importation industry.

Australia is heavily reliant on maritime trade, with more than 99 percent of international trade by volume moving through the nation's ports. Australian ports facilitate around $650 billion in trade annually and support approximately 700,000 jobs.

Within this national system, Port Phillip Bay is a critical gateway because it provides access to the Port of Melbourne, Australia's largest container and general cargo port which handles more than one-third of Australia's container trade. And the sea pilots are busy: about 3300 vessels travel into the bay every year, loaded up with roughly 79.7 million tons of cargo. In the 2025 financial year, that equated to about $154 billion worth of trade.

The journey up Port Phillip Bay can well be described as challenging when you are steering some of the world's largest ships - vessels that have continued to grow in size when the waterway they traverse has not.

Port Phillip Bay is far less forgiving than many people assume. Once inside the bay - a feat in itself - the challenge becomes one of margins. Modern container ships can exceed 350 metres in length, yet they are often navigating channels that have been carefully dredged to provide only the depth necessary for safe passage. In some locations, the clearance between the vessel's hull and the seabed can be measured in metres or less - making precise positioning and continuous monitoring critical.

By the time a ship reaches the wharf, pilots are manoeuvring a vessel the length of more than three football fields into a berth with remarkable precision. Despite the immense scale of these ships, there is little room for error. Safe navigation depends on knowing the vessel's position to within centimetres while moving through constrained waterways that form Australia's busiest container gateway.

"The government, through Ports Victoria, identified the high risk of these manoeuvres and these vessels," Mr Hanson said. "We're in really tight. Bringing them up the river is tight. The swing basin is really tight."

In constrained waterways, where visual cues may be limited and the consequences of error are high, precision positioning is no longer simply a navigation aid - it is a core operational system. Positioning Australia's RTK and SouthPAN services are helping make that system more accessible, more resilient and more fit for modern port operations.

For Port Phillip Sea Pilots, precise positioning supports one of Australia's most important trade gateways to operate safely and efficiently. In this way, Geoscience Australia's positioning infrastructure contributes not only to safer pilotage, but also to the resilience of supply chains that support Victoria and the broader Australian economy.

Organisations and individuals can access SouthPAN, RTK and Geoscience Australia's other precise positioning services free of charge. Learn more about the Positioning Australia program here.

A container ship more than a third of a kilometre long. No view of the wharf from the bridge. Less than half a metre between the hull and the bay floor. Thousands of containers on board, and a berthing position that must be met with centimetre-level precision.

In these conditions, positioning isn't just important. It's essential.

At Port Phillip Bay, Australia's busiest container port, pilots rely on Geoscience Australia's precise positioning services to support their work to safely guide a constant stream of container ships that connect Australian businesses to global markets.

Their confidence in this technology is reflected in their decisions. Having proved its accuracy, reliability and availability, the Port Phillip Bay pilots recently transitioned from commercial positioning providers to Geoscience Australia's services exclusively - joining thousands of Australians who can access the same services free of charge.

The pilots use a combination of the Real Time Kinematic (RTK) service and the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN). These are free and open services which give decimetre-accurate positioning correction and are provided by Geoscience Australia's Positioning Australia program.

This government-provided service has replaced three commercial positioning licences that required coordination across the pilot fleet in the midst of busy operations.

"That was clunky. If others were logged in and they had to physically log out to let someone else with a high-risk vessel log in - it wasn't really a very good solution for us," recalled marine pilot and Port Phillip Bay Sea Pilots Managing Director Michael Hanson.

"Now everyone's set up. It's a seamless and cost-effective option for us."

Such a vote of confidence is no small matter when it comes to Australia's crucial importation industry.

Australia is heavily reliant on maritime trade, with more than 99 percent of international trade by volume moving through the nation's ports. Australian ports facilitate around $650 billion in trade annually and support approximately 700,000 jobs.

Within this national system, Port Phillip Bay is a critical gateway because it provides access to the Port of Melbourne, Australia's largest container and general cargo port which handles more than one-third of Australia's container trade. And the sea pilots are busy: about 3300 vessels travel into the bay every year, loaded up with roughly 79.7 million tons of cargo. In the 2025 financial year, that equated to about $154 billion worth of trade.

The journey up Port Phillip Bay can well be described as challenging when you are steering some of the world's largest ships - vessels that have continued to grow in size when the waterway they traverse has not.

Port Phillip Bay is far less forgiving than many people assume. Once inside the bay - a feat in itself - the challenge becomes one of margins. Modern container ships can exceed 350 metres in length, yet they are often navigating channels that have been carefully dredged to provide only the depth necessary for safe passage. In some locations, the clearance between the vessel's hull and the seabed can be measured in metres or less - making precise positioning and continuous monitoring critical.

By the time a ship reaches the wharf, pilots are manoeuvring a vessel the length of more than three football fields into a berth with remarkable precision. Despite the immense scale of these ships, there is little room for error. Safe navigation depends on knowing the vessel's position to within centimetres while moving through constrained waterways that form Australia's busiest container gateway.

"The government, through Ports Victoria, identified the high risk of these manoeuvres and these vessels," Mr Hanson said. "We're in really tight. Bringing them up the river is tight. The swing basin is really tight."

In constrained waterways, where visual cues may be limited and the consequences of error are high, precision positioning is no longer simply a navigation aid - it is a core operational system. Positioning Australia's RTK and SouthPAN services are helping make that system more accessible, more resilient and more fit for modern port operations.

For Port Phillip Sea Pilots, precise positioning supports one of Australia's most important trade gateways to operate safely and efficiently. In this way, Geoscience Australia's positioning infrastructure contributes not only to safer pilotage, but also to the resilience of supply chains that support Victoria and the broader Australian economy.

Organisations and individuals can access SouthPAN, RTK and Geoscience Australia's other precise positioning services free of charge. Learn more about the Positioning Australia program here.

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.