In our previous piece we argued that when shore leave is short, time and access to information matter as much as the welfare services themselves. A new national report from the Australian Seafarers’ Welfare Council (ASWC) and AMSA backs that up with hard numbers — and adds a finding that's hard to call anything but stark.
What the report covers
The Seafarer Port Welfare Survey was run jointly by ASWC and AMSA from 1 October 2025 to 4 February 2026 among seafarers arriving at Australian ports. It collected 436 responses in total: 210 seafarers completed the short, three-question version, and a further 204 also completed the eight-question extended section. More than half of all responses came from five ports — Newcastle, Port Hedland, Fremantle, Bunbury and Gladstone — though once adjusted for the number of vessel arrivals in 2025, Bunbury recorded the highest response rate of all.
Overall, seafarers rated Australia's welfare system positively, singling out Stella Maris, Flying Angel and Mission to Seafarers for praise. But two specific findings go well beyond that general endorsement.
One in four never got ashore at all
Of the 202 seafarers who answered the question about how they travelled from ship to port gate on that particular call, 55 said they weren't able to get ashore at all. A further 49 reported their shuttle bus was delayed; 56 were picked up immediately; 42 walked.
This isn't a one-off failure at a single port — it's a figure recorded in a nationwide survey. The report itself links it to fast cargo operations, short port stays, watchkeeping and inspections, which weigh especially heavily on senior crew — exactly the dynamic we described in our previous issue: shore leave is shrinking faster than the range of services available ashore is changing.
Meanwhile, of six welfare categories seafarers were asked to rank by importance, internet/Wi-Fi received the most "most important" votes (179 of 436), and shore leave received the most "second most important" votes (168). Both top priorities map directly onto the same access problem the figure above illustrates.
Where a seafarer actually finds out what's available
This is the finding most relevant to the theme IMWIRSA has been tracking across this series. Asked directly, "how do you find out what shore-based welfare facilities are available in Australian ports?", responses broke down as follows: from the master or ship's agent — 98 votes, from other crew members — 67, from the internet or social media — 55, from a port chaplain or ship visitor — 45.
In other words, the channel most seafarers actually rely on today is person-to-person word of mouth, not any systematic, pre-available source. The report itself puts this cautiously — "trusted onboard sources and personal interactions remain the primary means of communication" — but behind that phrasing sits a simple fact: if the master, the agent or a crewmate hasn't told a seafarer that a welfare centre, a running shuttle, or a pharmacy is nearby, there is usually no other way for him to find out on his own.
This report is valuable not because it uncovers a fundamentally new problem, but because it is the first to show it in numbers at the scale of an entire country — and in one of the most developed port-based welfare systems in the world. If even where the infrastructure is demonstrably in place, nearly one in four seafarers who answered this question physically doesn't get ashore, and most learn about the services available to them not from any systematic source but from a conversation with the master or a crewmate — then the gap between "the service exists" and "the seafarer knows how to use it" isn't a quirk of individual ports. It's a structural feature of the industry as a whole.
ASWC acknowledges this directly: the report announces work on its own Port Services Matrix — a map of gaps and access barriers across the country's key ports, which will feed into a new strategy for regional Port Welfare Committees. That's a meaningful step precisely because it shifts the question from "what services do we provide to seafarers" to "can a seafarer actually use them, and how does he even find out they exist."
This is exactly the direction MWApp already works in. The goal isn't to replace the master, the agent or the ship visitor as a source of support — they will remain the first people a seafarer turns to. The goal is to put a predictable, always-available digital channel alongside that word-of-mouth one: where the nearest welfare centre is, whether transport runs there and when, which gate to leave through and how to get back — available before a seafarer even steps off the gangway, not only if someone happens to mention it in time.
Sources
- Australian Seafarers’ Welfare Council & AMSA (September 2026) — Seafarer port welfare survey: Survey findings report — amsa.gov.au
- AMSA (16 Sept 2026) — Seafarers recognise strong welfare support in Australian ports — amsa.gov.au
- Shipping Australia (3 Oct 2025) — confirms the survey's launch date and ASWC's involvement — shippingaustralia.com.au
All facts above are drawn from the sources listed. If you've spotted an error — let us know. Corrections are made openly and noted at the end of the piece. See how we work.