Seven kilometres off the coast of Queensland on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, the Pacific Adventurer was battered by the tail end of Cyclone Hamish. Suffering two punctures to the hull, the vessel leaked around 270 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, and five hours later the oil was washing ashore on Moreton Island and some of the beaches on the Sunshine Coast.
It has been referred to as one of Australia’s worst oil spills and prompted a huge clean-up operation involving Maritime Safety Queensland, the Department of Environment and Resource Management, and SEQ Catchments.
