Sydney Harbour turns on sunshine as first cruise liner returns since March 2020

The P&O Australia cruise liner Pacific Explorer is the first to make an Australian return since a ban triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

The $400m liner, which has a capacity of almost 2,000 passengers, arrived in Sydney on Monday morning. The ABC showed the ship docking surrounded by tugboats, with a huge banner at the bow reading “We’re Home”.

The Explorer’s return to full service will coincide with that of Ponant’s Le Lapérouse, which will begin operations between Darwin and Broome on 28 April, joining local operators in time for the Kimberley cruise season.

NSW, Victoria and Queensland have outlined testing and vaccination requirements for passengers and crew in preparation for the ships to return.

However, Tasmania is still reviewing whether such a move is safe for the island state.

Peak body Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia says the lifting of the ban will see “a carefully managed resumption of operations” in a sector that previously supported more than 18,000 jobs.

CLIA Australasia’s managing director, Joel Katz, said more than a million Australians a year took an ocean cruise before the pandemic.

“We now have an opportunity to return to sailing and revive an industry that was worth more than $5bn annually to the Australian economy,” he said.

“While no setting is immune from Covid-19, the cruise industry’s new protocols provide among the highest possible levels of prevention, detection and mitigation.”

The move comes despite Covid-19 infections remaining high.

More than 32,000 new cases were reported across the nation on Sunday, along with 17 virus-related deaths, although seven of the eight announced by officials in Western Australia were historical.

Meanwhile, the Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen is in isolation after testing positive. “I was looking forward to a few days campaigning in regional Queensland and Brisbane but it isn’t to be,” he tweeted on Saturday.

Labor’s home affairs spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, and the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, contracted the virus last week.

Elsewhere, Health Victoria is monitoring the new BA.4 or BA.5 Omicron variant after samples were confirmed in a catchment at Tullamarine, north of Melbourne.

The subvariant has been recently detected in a small number of cases in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany, but is not considered a cause for alarm.