The Queensland maritime safety authorities estimated that the ship was at a 25-degree angle at the time the containers were knocked off.

After rolling to the opposite side, it crashed onto another container, creating a large hole underneath the ship, which was not noticed until it docked in Brisbane.

Radar satellite images acquired in preparation for cyclone damage captured the extent of the spill before it hit the coastline.

Following the oil spill Queensland Premier Anna Bligh declared two islands and parts of the Sunshine Coast disaster areas.

Several search parties have been sent to the spill area to attempt to find the potentially explosive materials that were in the 31 containers.

Press reports stated that if the ammonium nitrate were to mix with the heavy fuel, the mixture could ignite and cause a large explosion.

If the chemical did not react with the fuel but still leaked out, marine life could be threatened by large blooms of algae.

[14] On 16 March, the Royal Australian Navy began searching for the 31 containers of ammonium nitrate that were knocked off the ship.

[15] The clean-up was a delicate operation, because high tides had already eroded beaches after ex-tropical cyclone Hamish battered the coast over the previous week.

At the same time, high tides carried off some of the fuel oil initially deposited along shorelines and dispersed it back into the sea.

[3] 1,425 personnel took 16 months to clean up 155 hectares of coastal area and included installation of 21,220 plants and 2.6 km of fencing to protect recovering vegetation.

[19] Once the ship was at port, Captain Santos was forced to surrender his passport to Australian officials and he was to remain in Brisbane for at least two weeks to help with the investigation.

On 14 October 2011, Swire Navigation and Bluewind Shipping were fined $A600,000 each and ordered to publish a public apology after earlier pleading guilty to causing the spill.