A friend of mine was in Melbourne recently and wandered into the public access areas at the Port of Melbourne and grabbed a few pictures of the docked ships being loaded. While there, security from one of the terminals came up and stated:

No photos allowed.

You must show me your camera.

You must delete all photos now.

I must watch you delete your photos.

I can imagine that’s bit of a surprise to someone who’s fairly innocently standing alongside a public access road and taking photos.

On a trip to Melbourne several years ago I’d taken a bunch of photos of the docked ships using a long lens from one of the Yarra Ferries as they cruised up that way.

During a more recent trip to Melbourne I had a closer look and found there are a number of areas that the public can access via standard roads, although when driving around you will also find a number of areas with big notices “No Public Access”.

When you come in the area that the Port of Melbourne Corporation runs, you will see a sign like the below.

As you can see, there is no mention of any limitation to photography, just the standard reference to the the Maritime Security Act / Regulations. Further I checked the Port of Melbourne Corporation website and couldn’t find anything about photography and any policies that might apply.

So as there was no information available to back up the stance taken in the incident mentioned above, I decided I’d drop the Port of Melbourne Corporation a line to check out what their policies might be.

I don’t want to be a nuisance just for the sake of it, however my issue as a hobby photographer is I’m concerned that more and more restrictions are being placed adhoc on where you can and can’t take photos for various unknown “security reasons” or “regulations”.

Additionally these restrictions are often enforced on people who have no knowledge of them as they aren’t advertised and generally in Australia as far as I’m concerned “Photography isn’t a Crime”, but it seems to be heading that way.

Firstly the ye olde contact web form and hope for the best:

08:19 06/08/2009 Web Form

Hi,

I’m a hobby photographer from South Australia and I’d like to confirm the Port of Melbourne photography policy and if there are any restrictions etc.

Can you please provide an email address of someone who would be able to help me out.

Cheers,

Joseph

And then I waited for a response, while doing so I double checked the various policy documents on the PoMC website but didn’t find anything specific related to photography.

I specifically read the PoMC Operations Handbook 2009 2mb PDF and also the PoMC Safety Environment Management Plan a 4mb PDF. While finding nothing about photography I located some extra contact details that I could use.

I also found a map buried in one of the PDFs of the Melbourne Ports area that I was interested in, basically on the public access roads as you pass into the are inside the yellow line you will see the sign I linked above.

My friend was roughly in this area which as per the map above is inside the boundaries of the Port of Melbourne Corporation.

So going on 7 days and I hadn’t heard back about my query I sent off an email to one of the contacts I’d located in the manuals I’d read.

Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:52:34 +0930
From: Joseph Burford
To: Steven Sullivan

Hi Steven,

apologies if you aren’t the correct person for this query, if not please feel free to direct me to whoever would be the best contact. I asked this question using the contact form on your website a week ago but haven’t received any response.

I’m a hobby photographer from South Australia and I’d like to confirm the Port of Melbourne Corporation photography policy and if there are any restrictions etc.

For instance are photographers allowed to take photos of ships from the public access areas within the Port of Melbourne. Does a visiting photographer need to obtain a permit or check in anywhere when visiting the PoMC areas.

Looking forward to hearing from someone who may be able to assist.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Joseph

And I got a really quick response back which was nice.

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:21:40 +1000
From: “Steven Sullivan”
To: “Joseph Burford”
Cc: “Peter Harry”

Good Morning Joseph,

Peter Harry Head of Corporate Relations –REDACTED– will be able to assist you in regards to what is required for taking photo’s in the port.

Regards

Steven Sullivan

General Manager Security, Safety and Emergency Management

Port of Melbourne Corporation

Awesome a contact to ask about photography!

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:24:52 +0930
Subject: Re: PoMC Photography Policy
From: Joseph Burford
To: Steven Sullivan
Cc: Peter Harry

Hi Steve,

thanks for the response and contact information, much appreciated. I’ll email Peter shortly.

Cheers,

Joseph

So let’s try again now we have a contact point.

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:34:45 +0930
Subject: PoMC Photography Policy
From: Joseph Burford
To: Peter Harry

Hi Peter,

Steven Sullivan passed on your details regarding my query about a PoMC Photography Policy.

I’m a hobby photographer from South Australia, from time to time I travel to various other states and take photos.

I’d like to confirm the Port of Melbourne Corporation photography policy and if there are any photography restrictions within the PoMC public access areas.

For instance are photographers allowed to take photos of ships or other infrastructure from the public access areas within the Port of
Melbourne? Does a visiting photographer need to obtain any type of permit or check in anywhere when visiting the PoMC public access areas?

If you are able to provide any insight or guidelines for photographers that visit the PoMC areas that would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Joseph

I was wondering how long it might be to hear back and I was taken aback, I got another quick reply. But hang on, it’s not from Peter, its from someone else answering my web form query which is now over a week old. Must be a huge backlog of queries to get through if it takes a week to reply to a web form enquiry, although I suspect someone was prodded to reply.

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:12:23 +1000
From: “Leonora Curnick”
To: “Joseph Burford”

Joseph,

My apologies for the delay in responding to your query.

Unfortunately, we do not allow photography within the Port of Melbourne and this is for security reasons. During the last several years, security at sea ports all around the world has been upgraded and that includes Australian ports. We have Australian Government and international security regulations which we must comply with in order for the port to trade with international ports.

I am sorry we are not able to help you with access for photography.

Regards,

Leonora Curnick
Communications Advisor
Port of Melbourne Corporation

Rather an interesting response which I pondered for a bit, especially seeing a few photography related link on the PoMC website. I didn’t hear anything further from my other email to Peter so I thought I’d respond to Lenora and copy Peter in.

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:31:45 +0930
Subject: Re: Port of Melbourne Website Enquiry
From: Joseph Burford
To: Leonora Curnick
Cc: Peter Harry

Hi Leonora,

thanks for your reply.

> My apologies for the delay in responding to your query.

No dramas at all, as it was about a week later I wasn’t sure if the web form
was working so I’d dropped a note to a few other email addresses I located
in the Port operations manual to see if any others could assist.

> Unfortunately, we do not allow photography within the Port of Melbourne and
> this is for security reasons. During the last several years, security at sea

Thanks for clarifying the stance, much appreciated, however I do note:

http://www.portofmelbourne.com/community/crowdtheory.asp
“The photographer shouted ‘Amazing!’, ‘Fantastic!’ after each shot.”

http://www.portofmelbourne.com/education/students/whatship.asp
“If you have taken an exciting photo of a ship send it to us and we
might put it into our photo album.”

Reading these lead me to believe there may have been a community
friendly photography policy in place as opposed to an outright no.

Indeed further to that I couldn’t actually find any restrictions on photography
directly listed on your website, the PoMC 2009 Operations Handbook or
the PoMC Safety Environment Management plan.

So potentially it’s worth listing somewhere in a document that’s
publically available. I do apologise if I have missed the document
where the restriction on photography is detailed.

> ports. We have Australian Government and international security regulations
> which we must comply with in order for the port to trade with international

I’m not aware of specific Australian Govt regulations which prohibit
photography in a public access area around a port.

Are you able to just confirm a regulation name or number for me
so I can do some further research into this?

Thanks again for you time.

Regards,

Joseph

Now when people go about quoting regulations it makes me wonder what the regulations actually say. Thankfully the Internet is a wonderful place to research information and thanks to a quick Google I was able to find the right palce to start some more reading.

Starting at the Maritime Security section of the website for Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport.

I had a read through “International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code)” including various PDFs for Final Act, Resolution 1, Resolutions 2-9 & Amendments.

Thanks to all the bajazillions of PDFs available on COMLAW I also had a read through the Australian docs for “Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act” and also “Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Regulations”.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything at all about photography and it being banned in ports, be that as a suggested security measure or actual documented regulation.

By now another week has passed with no response, seems things are pretty busy at the port offices, so I thought I’d send a copy of my questions again.

Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:16:24 +0930
Subject: Re: Port of Melbourne Website Enquiry
From: Joseph Burford
To: Leonora Curnick
Cc: Peter Harry

Hi Leonora,

seems this email might have gone missing as I haven’t heard back.

Regards,

Joseph

–previous email here–

This time I got a reply from Peter who was the guy Steven originally put me onto.

Subject: RE: Port of Melbourne Website Enquiry
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:54:33 +1000
From: “Peter Harry”
To: “Joseph Burford”
Cc: “Leonora Curnick”

Joseph,

Leonora is currently out of the office woring on another project so I am
pleased to respond on her behalf and reiterate the advice she has
previously passed on to you.

The Port of Melbourne is a secure maritime zone as designated by federal
agencies and is not accessible to the general public. As a result,
general photography and filming is restricted within this area. You are
at liberty to photograph the port and vessels from publicly accessible
areas outside our boundary.

The links you cite were community events arranged and organised by
ourselves.

Regards,

Peter Harry
Head of Corporate Relations
Port of Melbourne Corporation

It’s disappointing that there was no reference to my specific question about which regulations prohibit photography around a port.

I do find it rather obnoxious for an organisation to quote “rules and regulations” yet are unable to provide a reference to them.

Oh and a quick brush off that photography is ok if organised by PoMC? errr but what about that security and those regulations…

So my last and probably final reply.

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:06:11 +0930
Subject: Re: Port of Melbourne Website Enquiry
From: Joseph Burford
To: Peter Harry
Cc: Leonora Curnick

Hi Peter,

Thanks again for the response.

> The Port of Melbourne is a secure maritime zone as designated by federal
> agencies and is not accessible to the general public. As a result,
> general photography and filming is restricted within this area. You are
> at liberty to photograph the port and vessels from publicly accessible
> areas outside our boundary.

Thanks for confirming that, although as I’ve stated previously,
considering that there are areas the public can indeed access within
the PoMC boundaries I do believe it’s worthwhile to list the
restriction somewhere where the public can see it or find it
documented.

> The links you cite were community events arranged and organised by
> ourselves.

Thanks for the clarification, it’s good to know that photography
within the port boundaries is actually ok if organised by PoMC.

I assume in these cases it’s less of a security risk and doesn’t
breach the “Australian Government and international security
regulations” which Leonara referred to previously, regulations which
I’ve been unable to find documentation for as yet.

Thanks again and have a great week.

Cheers,

Joseph

So a summary at this point in time would be:

Photography is not allowed within various areas of the Port of Melbourne, even areas that a member of the public can walk into.

This is to meet “Australian regulations”, although PoMC don’t appear to be willing to confirm which regulations specifically this might be. Certainly my extensive reading to date hasn’t located any regulations banning photography in a port, however my quest continues.

Photography is seemingly ok within the Port of Melbourne if they organise it. Somehow this isn’t a security threat and doesn’t breach the “regulations” they must abide by?

It’s disappointing that it’s a straight out no stance that PoMC has taken as opposed to being more community minded or willing to work with photographers.

It’s even more disappointing that there is nothing publicly listed on any PoMC signs, website, operations manuals or any documentation that I can find regarding this stance against photography.

It takes a long time to get responses from enquiries to PoMC. Hopefully it’s not a reflection of their normal correspondence time frames to customer. I do appreciate they probably aren’t obliged to reply to a member of the public.

It would be nice to see a note on the website or anywhere public: “Hey sorry but for our own reasons we don’t allow photography within the port boundaries which are defined in document X. Please contact us if you require further information.”

In the end I would have been happy with “it’s our land, we choose not to allow photography and it’s documented here”, as opposed to X random responses.

If I hear anything further from the Port of Melbourne I will clarify it here in this post.