AIMS President Peter Murday's Welcome address.

 

"Good morning and welcome to Hobart.

Thank you to Her Excellency, Professor the Honourable Kate Warner, Governor of Tasmania, for officially opening our conference this morning.

As President of the AIMS I take great pleasure in welcoming you all to our 2015 Conference – the theme of which is “Marine Surveyors – A Lynch-pin in the maritime industry?”.  

Let me first and foremost congratulate Anne Rutherford and her dedicated support staff for planning and organizing this conference. 

Our conference sponsors also deserve recognition for their generous support:

At a guess I’d say that everyone here today has a fair idea of what a marine surveyor does and where he fits into the maritime scene.

A job description from 1834 defined marine surveyors as “persons who appeared most competent to discharge the important duties of their situations with fidelity and ability, and to strict and impartial justice to all parties whose property shall come under their supervision”.

Put simply – honest, straight down the middle, tell it as it is - for better or for worse.

Yet while the description is straightforward, our core business is varied. Our conference will cover subjects that are all encompassing – from marine engineering, marine insurance, marine surveying specialties, ship and boat building, ship hold cleaning and safety management systems – both afloat and ashore. There is a veritable smorgasbord of maritime knowledge on offer. 

We have planned a comprehensive program with distinguished speakers from around the country and further afield to make this an exciting journey covering all the important aspects of our speciality.

A special welcome to Ray Gillett who has flown in from the UK to deliver a paper on LNG as a marine fuel. This is particularly topical as the next generation of Bass Strait ferries will use LNG. Dale Emmerton from Searoad will be telling us more about this in his paper – LNG for Bass Strait Freight Service.

Safe to say that an LNG quantity survey won’t entail dropping a steel sounding tape down a sounding pipe - as we now do for bunker fuel oil surveys. Yet another sign of the changing times and another job gone.

And I ask is there a better back drop in Australia to hold a Maritime conference - Constitution Dock, Hobart. 

I have heard it said that when you think Tasmania you think maritime.

As Australia’s second oldest European colony, Hobart has a long and famous (many would say infamous) maritime history.

The Derwent was discovered by the Dutch back in 1642 and was visited on and off over the next several hundred years by the French (D’Entrecasteux and Kermadec) and the English (Furneaux, Cook and Bligh) – all of whose names you will find to this day adorning navigational charts of the area.

The English did eventually settle here in 1803 – just to make sure the French didn’t.

Hobart started life as a port servicing the whaling and sealing vessels.  There was also quite a large ship building industry - an industry and a skill that is still here today. In time other exports such as wool, wheat and apples took over from whaling and sealing.

Being a natural deep water port Hobart for a time was a vital southern ocean re-supply stop for international shipping and trade.

Today Hobart is the last port of call for Australian expeditions to Antarctica. 

The Hobart of today is a very different port to the one I visited as a deck cadet in 1973.  On my first voyage, around this time of year, very late one night, we made fast at Macquarie wharf – just opposite this Hotel.

I was sent forward for the tie up. It was snowing. The vessel was named Darwin Trader. She called at all east coast ports from Hobart to Darwin. We didn’t have much by way of cold weather gear mainly being kitted up with tropical rig – shorts and T-shirts. No one was too happy with the slow tie up that night.

We used to load big rolls of news print destined for Brisbane. It took about a week back in those days. 

Over the years I have called in here on the passenger ro/ro ferry Australian Trader and on the ANL “Lake” class bulk carriers - discharging cargoes such as wheat and salt. We discharged the wheat at Salamanca Place. Not a bad place to tie up for a few days. 

Also Union Steam Ship Company and Holymans ran ro/ro vessels into the Port. 

Yellow hulled P&O reefer ships would also be here loading cartons of apples for the UK - every single carton, every single tier painstakingly drawn on a stow plan by the deck cadets - lots and lots of little rectangles. How was that for specialist training??

In those days we had a vibrant shipping industry – young seafarers learnt their trade from the bottom up.

The big rolls of newsprint were supported in the cargo holds with timber dunnage. The timber dunnage was put up by gangs of chippys (shipwrights). Wharfies loaded the paper rolls using the ships gantries. It was labor intensive work. It was noisy, it was chaotic, it was fun. That was our class room.

At our last conference in 2012 in Brisbane - Kent Stewart – who has joined us here again today - delivered a paper titled surveyors must “change and adapt”.

So now - what do you all see standing here on the podium – 60 (well close), grey, slightly wrinkled, crook knees and failing eyesight – well you are looking at 50% of the AIMS membership. 50% of our members are over 60.  90% of our members are 50+!!  

Another significant statistic is that 90% of members under 50 do not possess Master Class 1 certificates.

The new generation of marine surveyor has a different classroom – and different lessons. The days of marine surveyors evolving from ex-C/O’s and Masters who were fully conversant in the workings of a ship is rapidly coming to an end.

In response to the growing shortage of experienced industry entrants and the mooted NSCV changes the AIMS executive has put plans in place for the future.

 The RTO (Registered Training Organisation) is now delivering diplomas and certificates and in response to industry demand an advanced diploma is now being developed. 

To date 20 students have obtained a Diploma and 80 are doing the course.

AIMS is responding proactively to several industry drivers:

 Our industry is increasingly demanding trained, qualified and accredited surveyors.  And why not?  When you go to a doctor, or dentist or lawyer you expect to see a degree hanging on the wall.

We are also aware that we must make our industry more appealing to the “Millennials” – those born between 1980 & 2000. “Millennials” are lost without IT and have an affinity for virtual learning. They have an “I don’t want to wear your pants” mentality.

They are independent thinkers and don’t want to do it the way we do it.  We must package our courses to attract the new generation accordingly.   

Of course conferences are not just for information – they offer a great opportunity to meet others in the industry, to put faces to those voices on the phone or names on an e-mail.

In the maritime world personal relationships are still very important and we hope that marine surveyors and other professionals will have the opportunity to interact, network and exchange ideas. Make sure you meet as many people as possible over the next few days.

We want to elevate the science and art of marine surveyors to a new level and tonight we hold our very first Awards for Excellence Gala Dinner which is our chance to reward those of us who have excelled over the past year.

We live in an era when the profession is undergoing rapid and dramatic transformation. While we want to retain the values of the straightforward surveyors of the last century we must evolve to meet the demands of these changing times. 

For AIMS, leading these changes has been a little like leading an orchestra – and we want to continue to produce good music that satisfies our audience.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy the conference.

I would now like to introduce Mr Stuart Richey, AMSA Chairman of the Board, to deliver his keynote address."