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Commonwealth legislation
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
These 1927 regulations impose mandatory safety standards on ships in Australian waters, requiring annual government surveys and valid certificates of survey before sailing. They apply to Australian ship owners, masters and crews, foreign vessels in the coasting trade, and passenger ships to or from Australia, and set equipment, structural and inspection requirements to ensure seaworthiness.
Owners must pay tonnage-based survey fees, report accidents promptly, and face heavy penalties (including £100 fines for carrying excess passengers), making the rules central to preventing maritime disasters.
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Direct links to the current provisions in Navigation (Survey and Equipment) Regulations.
Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
STATUTORY RULES.
1927. No. 93.
_______
REGULATIONS UNDER THE NAVIGATION ACT 1912-1926.
I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the Navigation Act 1912-1926, to come into operation forthwith.
Pursuant to Statute
Dated this thirteenth day of August, 1927.
By His Excellency’s Command,
THOS. W. CRAWFORD,...............
for Minister of State for Trade and Customs.
_________
NAVIGATION (SURVEY AND EQUIPMENT) REGULATIONS.
Short title.
Definitions.
“The Director” means the Director of Navigation for the Commonwealth;
“Deputy Director” means the Deputy Director of Navigation for a State and includes the Director;
“Surveyor” means a person appointed by the Governor-General to be a surveyor of ships;
“Board of Trade” means the Board of Trade of the United Kingdom;
“Passenger ship” means a ship which carries, or which is certificated to carry, more than twelve passengers;
“Cargo ship” means a ship which does not carry, or which is not certificated to carry, more than twelve passengers;
“Ship” includes ships propelled by steam or other mechanical power;
“Classed,” in relation to a ship, means classed in a corporation or association for the survey and registry of ships approved by the Governor-General under section 204 of the Navigation Act, and holding a valid certificate, as prescribed, issued by such corporation or association
“Unclassed,” in relation to a ship, indicates a ship other than a classed ship;
“The Act” or “The Navigation Act” means the Commonwealth Navigation Act 1912-1926 and includes any Act amending that Act—
and any reference to a form shall be read as a reference to a form in Schedule I. to these Regulations.
C.18464.—Price 8d.
Application.
(a) as regards—
(i) ships registered in Australia;
(ii) ships (British or foreign) engaged in the coasting trade;
(iii) ships (British or foreign) regularly employed in trading in or from the Commonwealth, and managed or controlled in the Commonwealth; and
(iv) passenger ships (British or foreign) engaged in carrying passengers to or from Australia—
the whole of the Regulations shall apply;
(b) as regards all ships (British or foreign)—
(i) detained as unseaworthy; or
(ii) which, having sustained damage to their hulls, machinery, or equipment, are re-conditioned or repaired in Australia; or
(iii) in connexion with which any survey or inspection has been performed and for which a charge or fee is specified in Schedule II. to these Regulations—
regulation 19 and Schedule II. thereunder shall apply; and
(c) as regards all British ships while within the limits of Australia or the territorial waters thereof—regulations 17 and 18 shall apply.
(2) Except where otherwise expressed, these Regulations shall not apply to—
(a) Sailing ships under 15 tons gross register, except as regards life-saving and fire-extinguishing appliances and internal combustion engines;
(b) Pleasure yachts; or
(c) Ships trading exclusively within the limits of a single State.
Classification certificate exempting from survey.
Ships to be surveyed annually.
(2) The survey of the outside of the bottom of the hull, and of the rudder, bearings of the screw shaft, and the various openings, valves and bolt-heads in the bottom, is to be carried out only while the vessel is in dry dock or on slip, after the bottom has been cleaned and before it has been painted:
Provided that where the Deputy Director is satisfied that such can be as efficiently carried out as if the vessel was in dry dock or on slip, he may approve of the survey of the bottom of a small vessel being made by a surveyor while the vessel is laid over on a beach or bank left dry at low tide.
Ships to have a certificate of survey or equipment.
6. The master of a ship to which these Regulations apply shall not take her to sea, and the owner thereof shall not permit her to go to sea, unless there has been issued in respect of her, and is in force, either—
(a) a certificate of survey under these Regulations;
(b) a certificate of survey as a passenger steamship granted by, or under the authority of, the Government of another British Dominion or Possession or of a foreign country, and recognized under section 188 of the Navigation Act as exempting the vessel from survey under these Regulations; or
(c) in cases where there has been issued, in respect of the ship, and is in force, any other certificate which under section 204 of the Act has the effect of exempting her from survey—a certificate of equipment in Form S. and E.—6.
Penalty: Fifty pounds.
Application for survey of ship or of equipment.
(2) The application shall be lodged with the Deputy Director of the State in which it is desired that the survey be made, the period of notice before the survey is desired being as follows:—
(a) Where the ship or her equipment was last surveyed in some other State, 10 days’ notice; and
(b) In other cases, 48 hours’ notice:
Provided that in special circumstances the Deputy Director may, at his discretion, either require a longer period of notice, or may accept a shorter period of notice, than that herein specified.
Certificate of survey.
(2) A certificate of survey shall be issued in duplicate. One copy, marked “Ship’s Copy,” shall be posted in some conspicuous place on board the ship so as to be easily visible to all persons on board, in accordance with the requirements of section 196 of the Act. The second copy, marked “Owner’s Copy,” is to be retained, for the period of its currency, by the owner or master of the ship.
(3) In the case of a foreign-going ship a third copy of the certificate, marked “Master’s Copy;” may also be issued, if desired by the owner or master.
Certificate of equipment.
(2) A certificate of equipment shall be issued in duplicate. One copy, marked “Ship’s Copy,” shall be posted in some conspicuous place on board the ship so as to be easily visible to all persons on board. The second copy, marked “Owner’s Copy,” is to be retained, for the period of its currency, by the owner or master of the ship.
Surveyor’s report of survey.
Particulars to be embodied in surveyor’s declaration.
(a) That the hull, machinery (if any), and boilers (if any) of the ship are sufficient for the service intended and in good condition;
(b) that the boats, life-buoys, lights, signals, compasses, and other prescribed equipment, and (in the case of a passenger ship) shelter for deck passengers, are such and in such condition as are required by the Regulations under the Act;
(c) the time (if less than one year) for which the hull, machinery (if any), boilers (if any), and equipment will be sufficient;
(d) the limits (if any) beyond which, as regards the hull, equipment and machinery (if any) the ship is in the surveyor’s judgment not fit to ply;
(e) the number of passengers which the ship is, in the surveyor’s judgment, fit to carry, distinguishing, if necessary, between the respective numbers to be carried on the deck and in the cabins and in different parts of the deck and cabins; those numbers to be subject to such conditions and variations, according to the time of year, the nature of the voyage, the cargo carried, or other circumstances, as the case requires;
(f) that the safety-valves and fire hoses are such, and in such condition, as are required by Regulations under the Act; and
(g) the limit of the weight to be placed on the safety-valves.
Declaration for reduced number of passengers.
Passengers steamships accommodation &c., for passengers.
(a) the number of passengers to be carried;
(b) passengers accommodation; and
(c) sanitary matters.
(2) A certificate of survey shall not be granted to any foreign-going, Australian-trade or limited coast-trade passenger steamship unless the requirements of this Regulation have first been complied with.
* Note—The Regulation at present in force are contained in pamphlets issued by the Board of Trade entitled “Instructions as to the Survey of Passenger Steamers,” “Instruction as to the Survey of Passenger Accommodation,” “Instruction relating to Emigrant Ships,” “Instruction relating to the Construction of Passenger Steamships,” “Instruction as to the Survey of Life Saving Appliances,” “Instructions as to the Survey of Lights and Sound Signals” “Standard Conditions for the Design and Construction of Marine Boilers,” ‘Standard Conditions for the Design and Construction of Water Tube Marine Boilers,” and “Standard Conditions and Rules for the Shafts of Marine-Steam Engines” and “Regulations relating to Fire Extinguishing Appliances on steam and motor Passenger Ships,” contained in Board of Trade Circular 1658 of January, 1920.
Except where prescribed Board of Trade Regulations to apply.
(2) The requirements of the preceding sub-regulation shall also be taken as applying, in so far as they can be read as applicable, to the surveys of cargo steamers and sailing vessels for certificates of survey or of equipment.
Owner’s representative may accompany surveyor.
Appeal to Court of Survey.
Report of accidents, &c.
(a) has sustained or caused any accident occasioning loss of life or any serious injury to any person; or
(b) has received any damage likely to render her unseaworthy, or her boilers or machinery inefficient; or
(c) has been in any position of great peril either from the action of some other ship or from danger of wreck or collision; or
(d) has been stranded or wrecked, or has collided with any floating or submerged obstruction; or
(e) having left any port in Australia has put back to that port; or
(f) has fouled or done any damage to any lightship, buoy, beacon, or sea mark—
the owner or master shall report the same, in Form S. & E.—7 (obtainable from any Deputy Director or Superintendent), within twenty-four hours after the happening of the event or, if the latter occurs at sea, after the next arrival of the ship at any principal port in Australia, to the Deputy Director, or, in the case of a ship lying at, or arriving at, an outport, to the Superintendent, Mercantile Marine Office, at that port.
Certificate of ships, damaged, &c to be delivered up.
*Note—This Regulations at present in force are contained in pamphlets issued by the Board of Trade entitled “Instructions as to the Survey of Passenger Steamers,” “Instructions as to the Survey of Passenger Accommodation,” “Instructions relating to Emigrant Ships,” “instruction relating to the Construction of Passenger Steamship,” “Instructions as to the Survey of Life Saving, Appliances,” “Instructions as to this Survey of Lights and Sound Signals.” “Standard Conditions for the Design and Construction of Marine Boilers,” “Standard Conditions for the Design and Construction of Water Tube Marine Boilers” and “Standard Conditions and Rules for the Shafts of Marine Steam Engines,” and “Regulations relating to Fire Extinguishing Appliances on steam and motor Passenger Ships,” contained in Board of Trade Circular 1658 of January, 1926.
(2.) The certificate of survey or of equipment shall, on demand by the Deputy Director that it be delivered up to him, be deemed to be suspended, and shall remain so suspe
This is an opening excerpt, not the complete document.