1995 – 2025
Thirty years in the channel
From 1995 until 30 June 2025, Port Hedland Pilots guided ships safely through the world’s largest bulk export port. This is where we keep our history, our photographs and our stories.
30 years
Continuous service, 1995 – 2025
18,300+
Pilotages in 2010 – 2014 alone
1,285 Mt
Moved safely through the port, 2010 – 2014
10th
Pilotage organisation worldwide certified to ISPO
339.95 m
Largest vessel handled: HL Tubarao, 2017
A farewell
Pilotage with integrity
Port Hedland Pilots was formed in 1995, when the Western Australian Government privatised marine pilotage at Port Hedland. For the next thirty years its pilots boarded by launch and helicopter, day and night, through cyclone seasons and record tides, as the port grew into one of the busiest on earth.
The company ceased operations at the end of June 2025. This site is a record of the people who did the work and the ships they moved. It is kept by former members for anyone who shared the journey.
Moments
1995Formed when the WA Government privatised pilotage at Port Hedland.
2012Tenth pilotage organisation in the world certified to ISPO.
2017HL Tubarao: the largest vessel, and the deepest draft at 19.95 m.
2019Cyclone Veronica: a record 8.35 m tide and 71 ships at anchor.2025Final pilotage on 30 June, after thirty years of service.From the archive
The gallery
Written by members
Stories & yarns
The first stories are being written now.
Members area
Help us write the history
Former pilots, office staff, boat and helicopter crews, and their families can sign in to share photos, name the faces and vessels in them, and write down the stories before they’re lost.
Certified to the International Standard for Maritime Pilot Organizations from May 2012, with annual audits by DNV.
