THE AUSTRALIAN Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is seeking providers of navigation aids maintenance services around the nation’s coastline, for the second time in three years.
In documentation issued on Wednesday [5 August] through AusTender the Authority is looking for contractors to maintain round 480 aids to navigation (AtoN), working closely with state and territory partners to ensure the network is resilient and fit for purpose.
The network includes a range of assets, such as lighthouses, lit and unlit beacons, buoys, power and communications systems, and meteorological and oceanographic (metocean) sensors.
In November 2023 AMSA notified the AMS Group, which won the contract after the work was privatised in 2001 and had had it constantly renewed, that the relationship would end in June 2024. A new strategy was to be pursued: “AMSA’s approach to market did not identify a suitable contractor and AMSA is pursuing an alternative strategy to continue maintenance of the Aids to Navigation network,” the Authority said at the time.
The move was controversial, with AMS Group marshalling forces in an unsuccessful effort to get the decision to exclude it from the tenders overturned.
Subsequently AMSA announced 'a new delivery model' for the network of about 480 AtoN located at about 360 sites around Australia’s coastline, and in February 2024 issued tenders for nine regional contracts.
These were awarded as follows:
For the 2026 version, the Regional Aids to Navigation Maintenance Tender (26AMSA060) has been released on AusTender and submissions close 22 September 2026. The AtoN Technical Support tender which will support the regional maintenance contracts, will be released in the near future.
The regional contracts seek qualified contractors to deliver:
Outage response and fault rectification.
A separate national technical support contract will cover:
As per the tender document the existing regions have been reduced from eight to seven for the new tender round, combining the previous Torres Strait Metocean region into Region 1. AMSA says the regional network is supported by:
Crucially for tenderers, regional maintenance contracts are for an initial 5-year term, with extension options of 2 + 1 years, while the national technical support contract is for an initial 5-year term, with extension options of 2 + 1 + 1 years.
AMSA has also included advice about certain implications of the Work Health and Safety Accreditation Scheme that will apply to head- and sub-contractors.
The Authority declined to comment on the new tenders, the current AtoN contracts or reasons for changes, citing the sensitivity of the tendering process.
Full details are available here.