Avoiding Boating Fines in Australia: A Personal Experience

My Instagram feed often shows us enjoying boating in the Mandurah waterways. Last week, we were minding our business on a river fishing voyage when the water police stopped us. I was speeding. It was at that moment that I discovered that I also didn’t have a license to drive the boat. Neither of us did. We should’ve, and neither of us knew.

It’s not hard to understand the confusion when you look at the details. Margo and I DO have boat licenses. We applied, studied and obtained them in Queensland. To our best knowledge, they transferred automatically when we moved states.

Australia is an enormous continent, but the boating rules are the same across states. We eat the same food, speak the same language, follow the same football codes. There’s an assumption that when we get a boat license from one state, it transfers to any other without complication. (Training agencies have to run nationally recognised courses, not state-exclusive ones.)

That’s how easy Australian life is supposed to be. But not when it comes moving interstate. When it comes to boating, licenses don’t transfer without taking a few extra steps.

Margo and I know boating exceptionally well. Both of us have spent thousands of nautical kilometers on the water. I lived on the sloop Last Laugh for a few years, and Margo participated in weekly sailing competitions in Moreton Bay. We are not just trained to drive boats; we’ve been actively practising it each week for years.

Last weekend, we took our runabout to the river instead of the estuary’s open space.

The wind was too much for open water, so we took shelter in the estuary areas instead. (See? We know boating).

My chart said 12 knots per hour (the updated one shows 5). We waved to the police boat we were about to pass as if nothing was wrong, and they waved back, flashing their blue lights, too. Something was wrong. We were doing something wrong. Oops!

The upshot was that we were speeding and weren’t licensed to drive a boat. The Queensland boating license I got in 2005 doesn’t automatically transfer after I moved interstate, and I didn’t know about that rule. I have to reapply and retrain to remain current on my license.

We’ve been fishing and crabbing in the Mandurah area for over a decade without a license. (Margo’s license was from Queensland, too!)

But here’s the critical takeaway from the encounter.

The police had every right to fine me for two things, as I broke the rules twice. Arguing with them about whether I did them or not was irrelevant. I’ve done it, and nothing I say changes that. However, by keeping the conversation civil, police can and will amend their original assessment of the crimes committed if they choose to do so.

Shouting, swearing, and blaming others only aggravate the situation. Escalating shows them that I’m an asshole, an irresponsible boat owner and in need of closer scrutiny. Once that happens, they’ll likely fine me for the original indiscretions and then look for more things to add to their list.

Being respectful shows I’m sensible, and I rarely find myself in such situations in the first place. They’re more likely to pass on a deeper inspection of my boat and gear. Although a fruitless exercise, it’d take time to do it, and what was a fifteen-minute process could’ve turned into a couple of hours of unpleasantness.

I was only booked for not having a license. They cautioned me about speeding (no fine for that).

And that’s it. Story over.

-Michael.

P.S. I’ve since found out I don’t need to retrain. I only need a copy of my Queensland certificate to show to a local training agency so they can issue me a state-appropriate license. Yes, there’s a fee, but it’s substantially less than the alternative and doesn’t require putting a day aside to do the theory and practical training sessions.