Some 800 Australians on board the Vasco de Gama will spend 14 days on Rottnest Island, home to the ever-smiling marsupial.
The Vasco da Gama was due to arrive at Fremantle on Friday, but authorities have effectively banned all cruise ships from docking there.
The vessel is carrying 950 passengers and 550 crew, and there are 800 Australians on board, including 200 West Australians.
The news comes after around 2700 passengers disembarked the Ruby Princess in Sydney, and more than 130 of them tested positive for coronavirus.
Australian nationals will be ferried in groups to the Rottnest Island from the Vasco de Gama, according to the ABC.
All visitors have been ordered off the island to prepare it as a quarantine site.
Foreign passengers and crew will remain on board until they can be flown out directly, West Australian Premier Mark McGowan confirmed.
“Passengers who need to travel home to New Zealand will also remain on the ship and a plan is being worked up with the New Zealand Government to get those passengers back home as safely as possible,” the Premier said.
The state has also blocked two other cruise ships from docking.
The Magnifica and Artana have both reported unwell passengers on board.
All passengers on board those vessels are international.
“Those two ships need to go home, they need to leave and go home,” McGowan said.
West Australian health authorities on Wednesday announced 30 new coronavirus cases overnight, taking the state’s total to 205.
Forty-seven of those total cases were direct passengers on board cruise ships that terminated in the eastern states.
