On April 1, 2020, the NSW Police ordered the cruise liner Pacific Explorer to leave its homeport Sydney NSW. The ship entered Sydney Harbour on April 1, returning from a drydock refit in Singapore and carrying only crew onboard.
Next video is the statement of Carnival Australia's President Sture Myrmell (also President of P&O Australia) regarding the issue.
The Carnival Corporation's subsidiary company Carnival Australia (that manages all the Australia-deployed vessels of the sister-brands Princess and P&O Australia) was officially banned from any Australian port until the country's COVID-related travel alert is canceled. Since April 1, Australia's Government required all foreign-registered cruise vessels to leave the country's territorial waters as soon as possible.
After leaving Australia, Pacific Explorer headed to Asia. The passenger-free ship was soon joined by 4 other (also Asia-bounded) Carnival Australia ships - Pacific Aria, Pacific Dawn, Sea Princess, Sun Princess. Carnival contacted the governments of The Philippines and Indonesia to allow docking and crew debarkation (repatriation of their citizens). For the remaining staff-crew Carnival chartered flights to their home countries. The ban also affected the Carnival Australia-managed ships Carnival Splendor and Carnival Spirit.
All RCCL-owned (Royal Caribbean and Celebrity) ships departed Australia on April 4.