Australasian Hydrographic Society

News
The annual election was recently held for a proportion of the positions on the Australasian Hydrographic Surveyors' Accreditation Panel. It was pleasing to see some competition, with more nominations than vacant positions. The Panel consists of the following members:

• Chairman, Hydrographer of Australia (Ex Officio), currently Captain B.J.Kafer, RAN
  
• Industrial Offshore, Gareth Jones
  
• Nautical Charting, Nick Lemon
  
• Education, Simon Ironside
  
• Private Practice, John McCarthy
  
• Port Development & Coastal Zone Management, Peter Barr
  

The Panel came into being as a result of many complaints from Port Surveyors at their annual conventions under the Association of Australian Ports and Marine Authorities. These complaints arose over sub-standard work from contractors operating without adequate knowledge and experience of hydrography, this being simple to do, as there was no government control over hydrographic surveying as there was over cadastral surveying.
As a result, in 1991 the Australasian Branch of the old Hydrographic Society took action and established standards, principles and rules to facilitate a form of voluntary control. The standards for competency are based loosely upon the Category A and Category B syllabi in the FIG/IHO Standards of Competency for Hydrographic Surveyors, Pub M-5 and result in Level 1 & Level 2 accreditation. A Panel of well-respected practitioners was then formed and the process of accreditation commenced, as applications were received.
Each year a proportion of the Panel positions come up for election; applicants must be accredited at Level 1 and only accredited hydrographers are allowed to register a vote. As the Australasian Branch was part of a British Charity it was impossible for it to operate the Panel, but the Institution of Surveyors, Australia, readily accepted this being placed under its umbrella; the Institution was recently replaced by the new, multidisciplinary Spatial Sciences Institute. I am pleased to report that the present system works well; tenders called from both the public and private sectors state that surveys under tender must be under the control of an accredited surveyor Level 1.
Newcastle Ports report they have called tenders to update their echosounders to multi-beam. Newcastle is the economic and trade centre for the resource-rich Hunter Valley, some seventy nautical miles north of Sydney. It is one of Australia's largest tonnage throughput ports, handling 77 million tonnes of cargo and accommodating in excess of three thousand shipping movements annually. It is the world's largest coal tonnage port, with 71.4 million tonnes exported in the last financial year. Due to natural circumstances, this port is very dependent on its breakwater and seawalls and on dredging services to maintain peak operational performance.
The acquisition of MBES will, in addition to giving 100 per cent seafloor coverage, create better management of maintenance dredging and future capital dredging projects and make possible detailed asset appraisal of breakwaters and seawalls. Newcastle Ports has recently developed a new Swell Analysis and Underkeel Clearance System (SAUCS). This collates and analyses data from wave measuring devices, tide gauges, survey systems and other sources that calculate the predicted motions and underkeel clearances for vessel and support pilotage services and operational decision making. MBES will, of course, greatly enhance the regular, timely and accurate data input into SAUCS.
We hear from Western Australia that Thales GeoSolutions Asia Pacific has recently been awarded a contract at its Perth & Jakarta offices that will also include using the regionÕs dedicated survey vessels. The survey will be to Thales GeoSolutions (Australasia) for the Pipelay Survey and Barge Positioning System contract for the Woodside Trunkline Systems Expansion Project off Western Australia's, bountiful North-west Shelf. The project involves the installation of a 42in-diameter multiphase subsea pipeline to increase production capacity from the Shelf's North Rankin and Goodwin Fields. The new pipeline will run from the onshore Burrup Gas Processing Facility in parallel with the existing pipeline, with a second trunkline crossover.

Contact
Australasian Hydrographic Society
Att. E.R. Whitmore
4/6 Carrington Street
Wahroonga, New South Wales 2076
Australia
Tel: +61 2 94892091
Fax: +61 2 94892048