The following statement is attributable to the Australian Hydrographic Office, released through Ports Australia:

‍

The Australian Hydrographic Office has noted a significant shift in demand from paper nautical charts to Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC), with ENC now being over 80 percent of total user demand. The AHO will therefore be rationalising the Australian paper chart portfolio to permit a greater focus on new editions of ENC.

Following consultation with AMSA, shipping industry and other stakeholders, paper nautical charts will be rationalised based upon the following principles from within the existing portfolio:

* Coastal areas – either 1:150,000 or 1:300,000 but not both.

* Ports and approaches – coverage at a single scale for each area, generally in the range 1:25,000 to 1:50,000.

This review identified 130 paper charts for withdrawal.

The Australian paper nautical charts will be progressively withdrawn throughout 2020 once any necessary detail has been transferred to remaining charts. We anticipate this process will take until end of 2020 to be completed depending on resourcing going forward.  During that time the AHO will remain responsive to any genuine requirements which may be raised by chart users affecting each nominated chart.

Please refer to Notice to Mariners 2020/85 for further details and full list of charts identified for withdrawal (http://www.hydro.gov.au/n2m/2020/edition_3_83-127_2020.pdf).