Salvage crews have boarded a grounded coal ship in the Great Barrier Reef off the central Queensland coast.
The Chinese bulk carrier Shen Neng 1 is wedged on a section of reef and has leaked four tonnes of oil in marine park waters.
Maritime safety experts say it will be another day before they can assess the full extent of damage and work out how to move the ship from the reef.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will inspect the site tomorrow and the Federal Government has moved to establish a special panel which will assess the damage to the reef.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett says he has asked the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to coordinate the panel and the group will advise the Government on how the ship should be moved.
Two tugboats are in place to stabilise the ship and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says salvage experts will consider pumping oil from the damaged vessel.
"The damage is extensive to the engine, to the rudder and other parts of the ship," she said.
Ms Bligh says more than 900 tonnes of oil is still on board the ship.
"There is thought being given at the moment to whether the best way forward is to pump out the oil," she said.
"That'll be a decision ultimately of the salvage team and that is something that could be part of the salvage effort".
'Time bomb'
The World Wide Fund for Nature's Australia director Gilly Llewellyn says the ship is a "ticking environmental time bomb".
"We would potentially be looking at an environmental disaster," Ms Llewellyn said.
"It would be an extremely large spill"
But Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) is confident it will be able to stabilise the ship.
General manager Patrick Quirk says even though the ship is damaged, there is unlikely to be a "catastrophic break-up".
Mr Quirk says the spill is less serious than first thought.
"We suspect at the moment that the oil has spilt not from the actual tanks but from some overflow pipes on the deck," he said.
Planes were not sent out with dispersant chemicals this afternoon because the amount of spilt oil was too small.
Booms are expected to be used to limit the spread of oil, but maritime authorities say it may take weeks to refloat the coal carrier.
AMSA investigating
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) says it is concentrating on securing the ship and cleaning up the pollution from the spill.
AMSA spokesman Graham Peachey says one of its ships will be travelling to the site of the leak to help with the clean-up on Wednesday.
"We will be investigating very thoroughly what happened," he said.
"This is an extraordinarily valuable area in the Great Barrier Reef. It's pristine and needs to be protected and there are rules there in place that need to serve a purpose and we'll be investigating very thoroughly".
Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter says some oil spilled from the ship may reach the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area by Wednesday, and miss popular tourist islands.
"At this stage the advice we have seems to indicate that the islands Great Keppel and south are not likely to be impacted on," he said.
Compensation
Meanwhile, Ms Bligh says no changes have been made to the amount of compensation shipowners are liable for if their boats create pollution damage.
Last year the owners of the Pacific Adventurer offered $25 million in compensation after an oil spill off the south Queensland coast.
Ms Bligh says the Queensland Government will look into compensation issues after the oil spill in the reef is contained.
"This is an international cap and the Federal Government, through the minister Anthony Albanese, has formally made representations to the international body to lift that cap," she said.
"My understanding is they have yet to do that, so we'll look at that those issues as they arise but right now our first priority is to stabilise this vessel".
Monitoring ships
The spill has also sparked criticism of a lack of monitoring of coal ships in the Great Barrier Reef.
Queensland Seafood Industry Association spokesman Michael Gardiner says there is more monitoring of fishing trawlers than large coal ships.
"All trawl vessels in Queensland are required to have a vessel monitoring device in place seven days a week, 24 hours a day," he said.
"Here we've got these massive ships fully laden with coal and fuel oil traversing part of the marine park, and there's certain parts there where there's no vessel tracking at all".
- ABC/Reuters
ABC News Australia
