Australia Bans Bulk Carrier Over Falsified Rest Hours
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has banned the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Wooyang Venus from Australian ports and waters for 90 days. The action follows an inspection at the port of Newcastle, in New South Wales on Australia’s east coast, where inspectors found that crew work and rest records had been falsified.
AMSA inspectors boarded the 87,000 dwt ship, built in 2005 and managed from South Korea, on 29 October after receiving a complaint under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC). They found that hours of work and rest records had been “deliberately falsified to mask excessive hours worked.” The ban was issued under the Navigation Act 2012. The ship left Newcastle on 31 October, bound for Korea.
It is not the first time the ship has been in trouble in Australia. It was detained in December 2023 and again in August 2026, and falsified hours were a factor both times. An International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) complaint in 2023 had also raised crew welfare concerns. Reports say this is one of several AMSA bans in 2026, with earlier ones linked to underpaid wages.
AMSA’s Greg Witherall warned that “poor fatigue management can impair judgement” and slow reaction times on board.
The case shows that port state inspectors treat false rest-hour records as a serious safety failure, not a paperwork issue. Seafarers are protected by the MLC and STCW rest-hour rules, and crews who are pressured to sign false records can raise complaints with port state authorities, unions or welfare organisations.
