Dozens of passengers are stranded on a Queensland cruise ship after it ran aground on a coral reef off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

The Australian-flagged Coral Adventurer became stuck about 30 km north of Port Moresby at arbout 6 am on Saturday.

It had departed Cairns on 18 December 2025, en route to Madang on its Frontier Lands of Papua New Guinea cruise.

On board were 80 passengers — from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and a couple from Israel — and 44 crew members, according to the ship-tracking platform VesselTracker.com.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority confirmed the Australian-flagged cruise liner had run aground and said will remain on standby to assist if needed.

Authorities have confirmed no one on board has been injured.

Medical advisor and survival and rescue expert Dr Paul Luckin said passengers and crew are expected to wait until the ship is refloated or they can be safely removed from the vessel.

“I would expect that the people will sit it out and wait until either the ship is refloated or until they can be lifted off the vessel,” Luckin told Sunrise.

“I would think that having to resort to aerial evacuation is likely to be very unlikely. So taking the people off should be a fairly straightforward, fairly safe, fairly routine thing.”

The rescue operation depends on tidal conditions, with authorities working to determine the best course of action.

The grounding comes only months after the Coral Adventurer was involved in the highly publicized death of one of its passenger.

In October, an 80-year-old woman died on Lizard island while she was a passenger of the Coral Adventurer.

The cruise line was accused of leaving Australian woman Suzanne Rees on the island after they were unaware she did not return to the ship after a day excursion.

The ship returned several hours later, however, Rees was found dead during searches the following day.

The current cruise was scheduled to conclude on December 30.