Nautical Institute Queensland Branch

A Maritime Career Path Example Chris Kline

I am now the General Manager of Brisbane Marine Pilots. Throughout the later part of my career I have focused on port management. From when I was very young I always seemed to be around boats. My father was interested in boating and my Grandfather was a Marine Engineer and although I always expected to have a career at sea I did not have a clear idea or plan how to get there.

As my family knew I was keen to go to sea they made a point of introducing me to seafaring people that they happened to meet. It was through these acquaintances that I found out about how to get a start in the industry. I started as a Cadet Deck Officer with BHP in 1978. This was my dream come true and as such, even though cadets (at that time) often worked long hours doing menial tasks like cleaning the bilges, I did not feel as if I was working for a living, it was just one big adventure. I traveled all around the Australian coast and throughout a lot of South East Asia. It was toward the end of my Cadetship that I met an older Marine Surveyor who told me about his son who was working as a Shipbroker. His description of his son’s work sounded pretty attractive (it may have been a father’s view). Apparently Shipbrokers have numerous long lunches, play a lot of golf and travel around the world buying and selling ships! Attractive as it sounded I still dreamt of being a Ships Master (Captain) but the story did open my mind to other potential maritime career opportunities. I finish my Cadetship completing my Second Mates Certificate in 1982. Over the next 9 years I served on many different ships and trades. I completed my studies initially to the equivalent of a Chief Officer’s Certificate and finally a Foreign Going Master Certificate (Master Class One) In 1990 I had been sailing as Chief Officer (1st Mate) for several years and was now married. BHP owned a manganese mine with its own port on a small island (Groote Eylandt) in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Having called in at Groote many times I was very familiar with the port, the town ship and the job opportunities there. Traditionally the company sent senior Mates there who would learn the basics of commercial shipping, then go back to sea as Master for a few years then take a shore job such as Ship Chartering (it sounded similar to Shipbroking ). The other attraction of the Groote job was Pilotage. The only people who got to pilot ships were the ship’s Captain or a pilot who, in major ports, had previously been a ship’s captain. This was my first significant decision in developing my career path and even though it was an internal company transfer it involved all the job application and interview processes of starting a new job. Fortunately I was successful and my wife and I moved to the Eylandt for a period of three years. The move was good for both my career and my family.

	The job included all parts of a small port operation as apposed to doing one small part of a big operation. I was involved in; agency, survey, loading, towage, barge general cargo and transportation, tankers and fuel storage, port maintenance, operations management, chartering and loading contractual arrangements and of course pilotage. It also allowed my wife and I to start a family while spending more time together in a fairly normal routine compared with me going away to sea for months at a time.

We moved to Newcastle and I went back to sea as planned. I got my first command as master of a small bulk carrier trading around Australia and to New Zealand. This was a highlight in my career, being captain of a ship was what I had started out to do. During my time as master I developed further pilotage skills by obtaining exemptions from using a pilot in ports that I regularly visited. It wasn’t long before a management position came up and I was asked to consider taking it on. As much as I enjoyed being the master of a ship it was hard being away from my family. I took the job to manage a port operation in Whyalla which included Stevedoring of steel products, bulk loading and discharge, port maintenance and ensuring the customer (another BHP Division) was happy with the service. The job was focused on safety, developing procedures with employees to continually improve the operation and customer satisfaction. It was also a great opportunity see a lot of South Australia, which appears to be an undiscovered tourist destination. We spent two years in Whyalla, it was a challenging job but I did miss going to sea and in particular pilotage. A position came up in Mackay which was to manage the tugs and lines launches at the coal export port of Hay Point with the added incentive that the company was looking into taking on the pilotage at their terminal. I was successful in applying for the position and the family moved again.

It was a great job, a similar focus to Whyalla but closer to ships and as a keen sailor living next to the Whitsunday Islands wasn’t bad either. However, for the first time in my career I felt that I had to consider changing my job because the company I was with was going through a major restructure and selling off its service companies.
BHP had been a great career company because it was large enough to move into different departments and experience all aspects of shipping in an international business. Being “sold off” had the potential for me to find myself locked into a career path or have to potentially change employers regularly. Even though I may have accepted a move into Chartering or Ship Management with BHP the choice between being locked into a career with a new employer or getting into pilotage was easy. I started applying for pilotage positions and got a start initially in Cairns, then back in Mackay. Pilotage is the sort of job you actually look forward to going to work - maybe 2 o’clock in the morning in bad weather is that great but the good times far outweigh the less attractive. After a couple of years a pilotage position came up in Brisbane, a city, something my children had only seen on holidays. They where now approaching high school so we decided that it would be a good move for the family.

	I have now worked for Brisbane Marine Pilot (BMP) for four years. BMP provides pilotage services for the Port of Brisbane on behalf of Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ). The arrangement with MSQ requires the pilots to operate and manage the pilot service which they have done now since 1989. With the growth of the Port of Brisbane, BMP has also grown and have recently changed their management structure to include the position of General Manager. With my experience in port management I was able to fore fill the requirements of this position. I now balance my time between management tasks and pilotage. It’s a great job.