17 June 2026
Who does this notice affect?
All vessel owners, operators, masters, and shipping agents who represent international commercial vessels, including cruise vessels, and are submitting pre-arrival reporting for arrival in Australian territory or are reporting a change in human health status as a human health update.
What has changed?
Changes have been made to the human health pre-arrival report (PAR) and human health update (HHU) requirements in the Maritime and Aircraft Reporting System (MARS).
- The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Disease Control, has amended human health pre-arrival questions to reflect new reportable signs and symptoms of listed human diseases.
- These changes have also been included in the additional human health questions.
The MARS offline forms for the PAR and HHU have been updated on the department's website to include these changes.
What you need to do
Vessel masters and shipping agents must continue to report, in the MARS portal, travellers who have died and/or been unwell with a new illness in the past 21 days.
Changes to the reportable signs and symptoms of listed human diseases mean that vessel masters must also report travellers who have had a new shortness of breath in the past 21 days.
A HHU must be completed if the operator becomes aware, before the vessel moors at a port, that the information included in the PAR is no longer current.
For vessel masters without direct MARS access, offline forms can be used to meet pre-arrival reporting obligations.
Where can you find the offline forms?
The updated offline forms are available on the department's webpage: MARS offline forms
Further information
Contact the department's National Maritime Centre (NMC) by email or phone: 1300 004 605 (in Australia) or +61 8 8201 6185 (outside Australia).
Information and MARS supporting materials can be found on the department's website under Vessels.