Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji acting chief ex­ecutive officer Philip Hill yesterday confirmed that they had received relevant documents pertaining to the MV Queen of Melbourne from a local shipping company.

“However, MSAF is waiting for an application for the initial survey to be lodged,” Mr Hill said.

Mr Hill confirmed that no further action will be taken unless the ap­plication is lodged.

Queen of Melbourne had arrived into Suva on January 19 this year from Geelong in Melbourne af­ter it was bought by South Island Shipping Services Company man­aging director Ulaiasi Baivatu.

In February Mr Baivatu had con­firmed lodging Queen of Melbourne documents with MSAF with the hope that the former Australian registered vessel be the third vessel to its fleet.

SISS owns the MV Liahona I and MV Liahona II – these vessels ser­vice the Lau group of islands.

Queen of Melbourne was ear­marked to improve transport ser­vices for the people of Kadavu.

Mr Baivatu had said in January that they hoped to uplift the stand­ard of ferry services to another new level from the purchase.

Queen of Melbourne has a seating capacity of 400 passengers.

The ro-ro passenger vessel meas­ures 50 meters in length and has a beam of 11 meters with a gross ton­nage of 663.

Da i ly newspaper Ge e l on g Advertiser in January had written that the Queen of Melbourne left to languish for more than 2½ years on Corio Bay, was finally sold to an in­ternational buyer.

The article read: “She set sail from Geelong on January 5, 2018, bound for the South Pacific. She is to be used as a passenger ferry servicing islands in Fiji.”