James Bond (naval officer)

He was best known for having discovered and charted a new deep-water shipping channel through the Great Barrier Reef, the Hydrographers Passage, which was 250 miles shorter than the previous route.

[1] In 1981, Bond discovered and charted the 60-mile-long Hydrographers Passage, a new deep-water shipping channel through the Great Barrier Reef, that reduced the previous route to take coal from the port of Hay Point to Asian markets by 250 miles.

[3][1][4] In 1985, Bond received the Royal Geographical Society's J P Thomson Foundation Gold Medal, for the discovery of Hydrographers Passage.

On his retirement from AMSA in 2013, the CEO Mick Kinley said of Bond, "He was a well-liked and respected man who embodied the best of Australian maritime tradition".

[1][4] He was known as "007", was invited to James Bond film premieres, and was happy to be photographed with strangers who would buy him drinks due to his name.