In June, the 135 ton (137 tonne) slipway was to be taken out of service and construction of a new slipway commenced to the east of the Town Jetty. Initially it was to be of 300 ton capacity with a possibility of upgrading to 610 tonnes.

Captain Peter Griffiths was Harbour Master from 1978-1991. He was the son of former Harbour Master Hubert Griffiths.

With the closure of the Frenchman Bay whaling station, the whale chasers left the jetty and the old jetty head was closed off and abandoned.

The Whaling Station closed operations in 1978. Being the last such entity in Australia, it was converted to a museum of whaling, and features one of the 'Cheynes' whale chasers that were used for whaling in Albany.

Whaling was carried out prior to British settlement by Americans then the British, being revived throughout the twentieth century by the Norwegians, Japanese and Australians.

In January, a contract for the installation of a ‘white’ oil products pipeline at the land-backed wharf was completed. The new facility was because of the deterioration of the Deepwater Jetty and the reduced demand for heavy fuel oil.

‘BP Enterprise’ was the first tanker to use the facility.

Due to a downturn in the Port’s activities, six employees (24% of permanent staff) were retrenched. Port trade was expected to be 10% down for the ensuing year.

The Port entered the computer age with the purchase of computer systems totalling $50,000

The main Data General system had a 20MB hard drive with 640KB of RAM, a daisy wheel printer and a dot matrix printer and 3 amber screen 20MB Olivetti hard disk systems.

Captain Christopher Shuttleworth was Harbour Master from 1991-2006.

The Department of Marine and Harbours and their predecessors Harbour and Light Department (since 1880) had traditionally employed and deployed Harbour Masters to Western Australian ports.

This responsibility was passed to the individual port authorities, together with the ownership and operation of pilot launches and associated crew. Incumbent Harbour Master Chris Shuttleworth became the first employed by the Port Authority. The Pilot Boat ‘George Vancouver’ was likewise transferred to the Albany Port Authority.

In response to the proposed dredging of an area adjacent to the jetty, a maritime archaeological assessment of the area was undertaken by Adam Wolfe. This was published as the Albany Maritime Heritage Survey 1627-1994 by the Heritage Council of WA.