Find Marine Subcontractors in Australia

Early access open

Marine work is gated by port access and by qualifications issued through AMSA, and neither is something a contractor can arrange on the morning they are due to start.

This page covers what gets subcontracted in this sector, the credentials worth confirming, and how a job runs on Workforce Marketplace. Early access is open.

What gets subcontracted

The work most often subcontracted covers:

Vessel maintenance, refit and slipway work
Marine engineering and mechanical repair
Commercial diving for hull inspection, cleaning and underwater repair
Wharf, jetty and marine structure construction and remediation
Port and terminal maintenance works
Survey and inspection of vessels and marine structures
Crew supply for delivery voyages and charter operations

Credentials that matter here

The credentials that gate this work come from AMSA, ADAS and the port security regime:

MSIC, the maritime security identification card, required for unescorted access to maritime security zones
Coxswain Certificate and higher AMSA certificates of competency for vessel operation
Maritime Radio Operator Certificate (MROCP) through AMSA
ADAS Part 1, 2 or 3 for occupational SCUBA, surface supplied air diving and dive supervision. The parts are sequential and define what the diver may do
Confined Space Entry and Gas Test Atmospheres for tank and void work
Working at Heights, IRATA rope access and High Risk Work Licences for crane and rigging on wharf works

Commercial diving is the one to be strict about. Recreational dive qualifications do not authorise occupational diving in Australia, and the ADAS parts define the scope precisely, including who may supervise. A supervisor without Part 3 cannot lawfully run the dive.

What to confirm before work starts

An active ABN. Where a supplier does not quote one, you are generally required to withhold 47 per cent of the payment and remit it to the ATO. Their GST registration also tells you whether the price should carry it.

That the credential is held by the entity you are contracting with. A person can hold a qualification while the business you are paying holds nothing. Check the name on the document against the name on the invoice.

Insurance appropriate to the scope. Public liability is the common one. Depending on the work you may also need professional indemnity, and workers compensation if they carry their own staff.

That the engagement is genuinely a contract for services. Since the Fair Work amendments the test looks at the real substance of the relationship rather than the label on the paperwork, and getting it wrong creates back-pay, superannuation and payroll tax exposure. Contractor vs employee in Australia sets out how it now works.

Writing a scope that gets comparable quotes

Marine quotes swing on access and weather rather than the work itself. State whether the vessel is in the water or on the hard and who pays for slipway time, what the weather standdown arrangement is and who wears it, who arranges port access and security clearances, whether survey and class approval are included, and what the environmental controls are on anything entering the water.

How it works on Workforce Marketplace

Post the scope with the payment structure it actually uses, whether that is fixed price, hourly, daily, quoted or split into milestones for staged work. Subcontractors apply, and you compare them side by side rather than chasing callbacks.

Every account is ABN-verified at sign-up. Beyond that, subcontractors can submit licences, certifications and insurance for verification, which we review rather than grant automatically. Their profile shows the status against each credential without showing the document, the licence number or the ABN. Verification is opt-in, so a profile may hold credentials that have not been submitted, and it reflects the document as at the date it was reviewed rather than standing indefinitely.

Applying for work costs nothing and there are no leads to buy. Payment runs through Stripe, and Workforce Marketplace never stores your card or bank details.