Additional Maritime information can be found in the current Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics Yearbook 2025. Link is here.

Chapter 9

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This chapter provides information on Australian ships, cargo, ports and fleet including mileage, tonnage and number of vessels. The data is sourced from BITRE’s Australian Sea Freight publication, BITRE’s Waterline publication and BITRE estimates based on Lloyds List Intelligence Data.

• There were 55 Australian registered vessels in the Australian trading fleet, including small vessels, and 73 overseas registered vessels in 2021-22.
• Queensland had the largest discharged volume with 40 million tonnes in 2020-21. Following Queensland, was New South Wales and Victoria with 33 million tonnes discharged each.
• Western Australian ports loaded 1 004 million tonnes of maritime cargo in 2020-21, the largest volume in Australia. Next, Queensland and New South Wales loaded 289 million tonnes and 176 million tonnes respectively. Together the ports in these three states loaded 94 per cent of Australia's maritime cargo by volume in 2020‑21.
• 8.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) were exchanged at container terminals in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle and Adelaide in 2022-23.

Figure 1  Principal Australian ports, by commodity

Figure 2  Number of cargo ships involved in coastal or international voyages that made port calls, by state/territory

Figure 2 provides a state breakdown of the number of cargo ships on coastal or international voyages who made port calls, from 1999-00 to 2021-22. The majority of states saw increases during this time period. Queensland and Western Australia experienced the largest numerical increases and were consistently Australia’s two most visited states by cargo ships. 

Also see

• Infrastructure Construction Dashboard
• BITRE Road Construction and Maintenance Price Index and Sub-Indexes–2015 update
• Freight statistics
• Aviation Statistics
• Maritime Statistics
• Rail
• Road
• Safety

This paper presents recent evidence on jobs at Australian ports, based on ABS Census of Population and Housing data. It examines 17 major ports that are of national economic significance, based on the level of activity as measured by ship visits, throughput and the value of trade. It presents the number of jobs located at port precinct, the industry structure, median age, educational qualifications and skill mix of that employment.

• Ports: job generation in the context of regional development
  
  is_056.pdf
  (1.61 MB)

Waterline reports on trends in (a) throughput, (b) container handling productivity on the waterfront and the land side of ports in Australia, and (c) the cost of importing and exporting containers. It covers both the unloading of container ships and the transport of containers from container terminals. In Waterline 53, the format of the report has been revised and several new productivity measures have been introduced following consultation with industry. This issue covers port terminal activity up to the June quarter 2013.

• Waterline No 53
  
  water_053.pdf
  (2.84 MB)

Paper given to the 31st Australasian Transport Research Forum, 2 October–3 October 2008, Gold Coast. Authors: Godfrey Lubulwa, Rob Bolin, Ben Slatter, Tony Carmody

• Container and Ship Movements Through Australian Ports: 2007–08 to 2029–30, Preliminary Estimates
  
  sp_004_Lubulwa_Bolin_Slatter_Carmody.pdf
  (1.28 MB)

Paper given to the 32nd Australasian Transport Research Forum, 29 September–1 October 2009, Auckland.Authors: Godfrey Lubulwa, Rob Bolin and Anatoli Lightfoot.

• Australian Sea Port Activity to 2029–30
  
  sp_003_Lubulwa_Bolin_Lightfoot.pdf
  (1.04 MB)

Paper given to the 34th Australasian Transport Research Forum, 28–30 September 2011, Adelaide. Authors: Godfrey Lubulwa, Adam Malarz, Shun Peng Wang.

• An Investigation of Best Practice Landside Efficiency at Australian Container Ports
  
  sp_003_Lubulwa_Malarz_Wang.pdf
  (165.67 KB)

This report examines in detail the proposal to deepen and widen the entrance channel and harbour of Port Pirie. Not only is this the major port for Broken Hill lead and zinc concentrates and refined metals, but it also handles a considerable volume of wheat and barley exports.

Of the various benefits identified from the work, only two have been found to be substantial in economic terms.

These are the possibility of utilising to full capacity the somewhat larger bulk carriers for bulk concentrate exports and similarly, the possibility of fully loading wheat export ships so that they would not require topping up at deep water ports.

• Port Pirie: Economic Evaluation of Harbour Improvements
  
  report_017.pdf
  (4.77 MB)

This study investigates evaluates the various options that could be taken in improving port facilities in Darwin, with particular reference to the impact of Cyclone Tracy.

• Provision of General Cargo Facilities at the Port of Darwin
  
  report_019.pdf
  (3.57 MB)

This Report was prepared in response to a Ministerial reference to the Bureau relating to an investigation of the demand for sea passenger transport between Tasmania and the mainland.

• Demand for Sea Passenger Transport between Tasmania and the Australian Mainland
  
  report_046.pdf
  (3.09 MB)