Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2014L00095:body:0:p33
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2014L00095
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 119953–122959

is a characteristic elem­ent of manned light­stations (criterion d).

Images in table by Peter Marquis-Kyle unless otherwise stated

7. Operational requirements

7.1. Requirements for aids to navigation
AMSA is responsible, under the Navigation Act 2012, for maintaining a network of aids to navigation around Australia's coastline assisting mariners to make safe and efficient passages. AMSA's present network of 500 aids to navigation includes traditional lighthouses (like the Dent Island Lighthouse), beacons, buoys, racons, Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and Automatic Identification System (AIS) stations, broadcasting tide gauges and a current meter.

Technological developments in the area of vessel traffic management have also contributed to increase the safety of navigation and helped promote marine environment protection. AMSA, in partnership with Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ), has implemented a number of initiatives covering the Torres Strait and the inner shipping route of the Great Barrier Reef as part of the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Coastal Vessel Traffic Service (REEFVTS).

7.1.1. Lighthouse performance standards
AMSA aims to meet international standards for the reliability of lighthouses set by the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA). The Dent Island light is designated as an IALA Availability Category 2 aid to navigation (within a scale of Category 1 to Category 3 and where Category 1 aids are the most important).  Category 2 aids have an availability target of 99.0%.

7.1.2. Access to the lighthouse
One practical effect of this performance standard is that the operational equipment and structure of the light need to be kept in good repair by regular preventative maintenance, and that equipment that fails while in service is repaired quickly. Routine maintenance and emergency repairs are carried out by AMSA's maintenance contractor. The con­tractor needs to have a reliable way to get access to the site for this work, and AMSA officers also need access for occasional inspections of the site including for auditing of the contractor's performance.

Service personnel coming to the lighthouse generally travel via the nearby Hamilton Island airport. Since the golf course has been developed, people attending the light­house have had convenient access, with the help of Hamilton Island staff, by ferry and car. Previously a visit required a helicopter, or access by sea.

7.2. AMSA Heritage Strategy
The AMSA Heritage Strategy 2005–2008 is currently being reviewed and updated. In its present form, the strategy provides for close cooperation with other agencies including the GBRMPA. It sets out the procedures that AMSA will follow to meet its obligations under the EPBC Act.

7.3. Great Barrier Reef Heritage Strategy
The Great Barrier Reef Heritage Strategy is currently being reviewed and updated.  The current strategy states that any action the GBRMPA or its lessees might