Most of the cruise ship visits to Eden for the remainder of the month have been cancelled amid coronavirus fears.
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Following the official declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation last week, P&O Cruises Australia announced a voluntary 30-day pause to its cruise operations.
As a consequence, Sunday's scheduled visit by Pacific Explorer was cancelled at short notice.
There are also a further five cancellations through March, including Royal Caribbean and Seabourn sailings in addition to the P&O ships.
Current advice from the country's public officials is that mass gatherings should be limited to no more than 500 people and Australians should reconsider their need to travel anywhere in the world.
Announcing the pause, president of P&O Cruises Australia Sture Myrmell said the cruise line was confident in its existing public health measures to maintain a healthy onboard environment for guests and crew.
However, Mr Myrmell said the responsible course was for P&O to support the efforts of federal and state governments and their senior health experts as they work to contain the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
"These are extraordinary times and we have no hesitation in putting the health and well-being of our guests, crew and the wider community first," Mr Myrmell said.
To date the following cruise visits to Eden have been cancelled:
March 15 - Pacific Explorer
March 16 - Voyager of the Seas
March 19 - Celebrity Solstice
March 21 - Seabourn Encore
March 27 - Voyager of the Seas
March 29 - Pacific Explorer
Cunard's Queen Elizabeth is scheduled to return to Eden on March 31 - however, as of Monday, March 16, it had yet to leave Sydney port on its current journey.
Australian Border Force has announced a ban on cruise liners from foreign ports arriving at Australian ports for 30 days.
However, cruise ship visits to Eden are, in the majority, domestic sailings, which are currently "low risk" according to Carnival Australia.
"Domestic cruising remains low risk and Eden calls have been part of these domestic itineraries that have played a part in bringing visitors back to the South Coast," corporate communication manager for Carnival Australia David Jones said.
"The community can be confident that every possible action, based on the best international public health advice, has been taken to maintain a healthy onboard environment and to maintain confidence in cruising.
"This includes strict pre-embarkation screening of guests and crew and other measures to safeguard health and well being."
At this stage, three sailings to Eden are still scheduled to go ahead between now and the end of April. Port closures and uncertainty around further travel restrictions have seen some other major cruise lines cancel sailings, amend itineraries and deploy ships to other regions around the world, including Australia.
A spokesperson for Port Authority of NSW said they were following expert advice set by federal and state agencies for border workers, cruise passengers and employees and will continue to update requirements to be consistent with that advice.
A NSW Health spokesperson stated that in response to COVID-19, additional health and travel information was being collected from all cruise ships entering NSW, which is reviewed by a NSW Health expert panel to assess the risk.
Further assessment may be done by a NSW Health team when the ship docks, including assessing those with fever or respiratory symptoms. As there is an incubation period for all infections including COVID-19, screening people for disease is not a failsafe and is only one piece of the assessment.
