MEDIA AND PRESS FACT SHEET
Marine pilotage has existed in Australia since the days of first settlement. The first pilot, Robert Watson (after whom Watsons Bay in Sydney was named), guided ships safely to and from Sydney Cove.
The chief concern of a pilot is safety, more specifically safety of the port and associated infrastructure. Pilots often take many years at sea, rising to command, before being accepted for the specialist training that allows them to practice as a fully licenced pilot.
Training regimes vary from port to port, as each has it’s own challenges and some require more time than others. Some ports require a number of training runs to be made under certain tidal conditions so trainees must wait for those conditions to arise. Almost all ports have staged training, whereby a pilot is licenced gradually to conduct larger and larger ships under differing conditions.
AMPI's role in pilotage
AMPI works to build resilience in pilotage through programs which enhance quality, skills, retention, education and training along with mentoring and nurturing of current and future pilots. AMPI takes a professional role in in the development of a Pilot Safety Framework, and to compliment this AMPI maintains a professional, non-industrial forum for new ideas, developments and issues.