I am guessing there is a minimum distance from the coast that commercial shipping is prohibited from entering as they travel up and down the coast?

Transit or traffic separation schemes are marked on the charts, usually at port entrances the Great Barrier Reef and high traffic corners like where the east coast turns to the south coast, other than that it's a free for all, mostly shipping is point A to point B

AIS is your friend if your out with the ships. See and be seen, they can creep up on you, PDQ

I was heading south one night in 2011 about 1nm off Port Macquarie when the lights of Port Macquarie disappeared!

Yep there was a large coal ship INSHORE of me.

Got a big fright and yes in was a bloody black night!

So expect shipping anywhere.

Normally only an issue when going Sth as your further off the coast.
no minimum distance off the land, and you'll occasionally get some about a mile off some of the Capes, but generally speaking they are at least 7nm off, I don't know what the thinking is behind that....maybe it's to be away from the fellas in the small tinnies fishing?? that are extremely difficult to to see until your very close to them.
AIS is a 'nice to have' but certainly not needed on the East Coast.

If you want to talk to a big ship you do need AIS so you can call them by name.

They certainly will NOT reply to calls to "Big Ship"

www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/centery:25.0/zoom:4

lydia said..

nswsailor said..
If you want to talk to a big ship you do need AIS so you can call them by name.

They certainly will NOT reply to calls to "Big Ship"

Not so sure about that but usually, "Commercial vessel proceeding south abeam of Smoky Cape, this the sailing vessel 2 miles off your port bow we will continue to show you red and pass astern over"

Yep, I've regularly (3 or 4 times) called "ship 3 miles east of Barrenjoey (or wherever this is yacht Morning Bird over". Never had them not answer.

As both a yachtsman and as a watch keeper on a variety of merchant ships I will give you the lowdown from the bridge.
when laying a course it is a lay line from point A to B we stay minimum 10 miles from closest point of land ,depending on size of vessel and speed.our lay line to most ports is to fairway bouy or an outside anchorage where we pick up a pilot .
During the day there is always one on watch mainly the chief officer ,the Master relieves during breaks he is also on the bridge doing paperwork and other such duties ,at night There are two on watch a junior officer and a rating they monitor radio and radar .We monitor both VHS and GMDS radio .
Depending on type of radars. They are set at 50 miles 25 and 10 miles most radars are interfaced with AIS .
Depending the speed of ships we set a CPA which means a closet point of approach of say 5 miles then the alarm goes off on alerting us that a collision may occur we may then change course avoiding the other vessel by 2 miles
Ships don't like changing course as it may lead a domino effect with other vessels in the area on opposite course they may prefer to slow down ,imagine yourself on a ship sailing north and meeting the Hobart fleet coming south we would be heading to NZ.
If you have any concern just call up the ship and state your intentions .
if Transitting past a busy port such as Newcastle/Gladstone /Caloundra some ships will be drifting rather than anchoring these ships may be Not Under Command meaning they are drifting main engines are stopped they have right away ,or they could be steaming around waiting for pilot just track there course on AIS
fishing boats are different as they are light up and changing course if they are dragging nets also they aren't the best at having an AIS signal .
just use common sense ,be cautious ,learn the rules of the road and understand the various lights and there meaning.

lydia said..

Tranisiting Gladstone is always my least favourite passage at night for a reason.

I was coming down past Gladstone one night, doing a delivery with no AIS, and I was surprised just how quickly these big things can "up anchor & go" - and at a great rate of knots!!

I often parallel shipping lanes when offshore, they're such great runways and you know they are safe water, but that enjoyment was wholly because of AIS, it is such a brilliant tool for sailing near shipping.
I love being offshore at night except for how nighttime screws with your ability to judge distances. When running down off the edge of a shipping lane It was always interesting listening to the crew trying to build up a picture of which lights were what.. ships coming toward, going away , moving or not moving, Nav aids etc. You'd then go downstairs and look at the AIS overlay and see how accurate we all were at building that situational awareness plot. That ability to instantly build an accurate picture...that's priceless.
In the nav software, if another ships track intersected your course track, it would switch from a faint pink line to flashing red and sound an audible tone. Off Gladstone or similarly busy ports, the whole screen could be lit up with flashing red course lines, enough to freak out the more inexperienced crew when they saw it .
Like any software you could set the range and severity settings to lessen the intensity of the alarms and light show. But when racing I found it invaluable to leave it at max sensitivity, it would enable you to spot the clear patches of water where the ships weren't going to be and that would then become our 'safe water;' for gybing or a major course change.
At 40 knots closing speed, 5nm ahead was only 7 mins away, which is about how long it took to wake up the crew and set up for a gybe.
Love shipping lanes, but only thanks to AIS.