Bays, coasts and oceans - Ballast water
What is ballast water?
Ballast water is the material placed in a ship's hold to improve its stability. Ballast water is taken up or discharged when cargo is unloaded or loaded, or when ships need extra stability in response to foul weather. However, ships also pick up the plants and animals that live in the sea water. Discharge of ballast water releases these into new areas and they can become marine pests.
Victoria's domestic ballast water management
The Victorian domestic ballast water management system is designed to protect the Victorian marine environment by minimising the introduction of marine pests from ships’ ballast water. Such introductions can create significant impacts on the community’s use of the marine environment, create additional trade restrictions and affect other growing industries, such as aquaculture. A recent example in Port Phillip Bay is the introduction of the Northern Pacific Seastar from Tasmania, which has had a significant impact in just a few years.
The Victorian Government first introduced its domestic ballast water management arrangements into Victoria on 1 July 2004, which are outlined in the Waste Management Policy (Ship’ Ballast Water)
(PDF 159KB) (the Policy). This Policy is a statutory document made under the Environment Protection Act 1970 and forms part of Victoria’s legal system.
This CD provides a users guide to assist you to understand and meet your domestic ballast water obligations in Victoria following the introduction of the Environment Protection (Ships’ Ballast Water) Regulations 2006 (PDF 139KB) (the Regulations) which came into force on 01 July 2006.
(PDF 139KB) . The PEM has recently been revised to reflect additional regulatory requirements.
Policy purpose
The key purpose of the Policy (PDF 153KB) is to protect Victoria’s marine environments from marine pests introduced via domestic ballast water. Under the Policy, high-risk domestic ballast water regardless of its source must not be discharged into Victorian waters.
More about the purpose of the policy
Government obligations
This section provides information about roles and responsibilities of the Victorian Government in the domestic ballast water management arrangements.
Shipping industry obligations
This section provides information for ship owners and masters, and owners, operators and managers of Victorian ports.
Accreditation agreements
This section has information about agreements to exempt companies or ships from reporting requirements in recognition of good performance.
Compliance inspections
This section provides information about inspections to assess ships compliance with domestic ballast water management arrangements, non-compliance due to safety or structural limitations and ongoing non-compliance.
More about compliance with the domestic ballast water management arrangements
Environment Improvement Plans
This section provides information about guidelines for developing Environment Improvement Plans.
Legislation, publications and forms
This section provides information about ballast water related legislation and publications, and water log and reporting forms.
Frequently asked questions
This section has answers to questions about topics such as high risk domestic ballast water, costs to ships to comply with the domestic ballast water management arrangements and how these arrangements affect the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) requirements.
Hastings National Demonstration Project
This project was conceived to trial the integrated management of both domestic and international ballast water.