New shipping fairways being progressively introduced in August 2012 off the coasts of NW Australia. Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese recently announced the fairways saying commercial shipping was vital to Australia’s economy and with industrial and mining activity on the increase in Western Australia, so too was shipping. “For busy shipping routes, it’s important we continue to increase navigational safety and reduce the risk of ship groundings and collisions,” Mr Albanese said. “That is exactly what the new network of Shipping Fairways will do. He said vessels would begin to use the Shipping Fairways when electronic and paper navigational charts were progressively updated from this month (August 2012) onwards.