What ship is that?

The Port of Melbourne has more than 3000 ship visits each year. Around the Port Phillip Bay and the port area you will see ships in harbour, arriving or departing.

Every ship at sea flies a national flag (an ensign) from its stern – this is the flag of the country in which the ship is registered. When a ship enters another country’s waters it must also fly that country’s flag. So for example, a ship registered in Germany but docked at the Port of Melbourne would fly the German flag from its stern and the Australian flag from the mast above the bridge.
Some ships are registered in countries that are not the countries of the company that owns the ship, these ships are said to fly a ‘flag of convenience’ .

Despite ships being full of modern communication technology, they still communicate by using signal flags. Flags continue to work during storms, power failure or computer breakdowns. Signal flags are brightly coloured and fly from the mast above the ship’s bridge.

There are a few common signal flags flown by ships visiting the Port of Melbourne. These include an all red flag indicating danger, oil tankers or ships carrying dangerous cargo must fly this flag.

Also commonly seen is a half-red, half-white, vertically-striped flag that signals that the ship is carrying a pilot – every ship above a certain size must have a pilot on board to guide it into and out of Port Phillip Bay

What ship is it? Where did it come from and where is it going?
Use the links below to find out more about the ships visiting the port:

Ships in port
Actual movements
Expected movements

Also visit the Victorian Channels Authority web cams where you can watch shipping movement in the Yarra River and at Port Phillip Bay Heads:

Web cams

If you want to know more about some of the ships you have identified, visit the web sites of shipping lines participating in our Adopt a Ship program.

If you have taken an exciting photo of a ship send it to us and we might put it into our photo album.