Two bulkers have been banned from Australia waters after failing to pay their crew.

In what it called an "unprecedented move", the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) barred the Chinese ships for "breaching the most basic rights of seafarers," it said.

The 40,000-dwt Fortune Genius (built 2002), in Gladstone, was banned for 12 months, after it was discovered that eight crew members from Myanmar were being routinely underpaid.