(1) The following ships shall, for all purposes, be taken to be Australian ships and to have Australian nationality:
(a) registered ships;
(b) unregistered ships (other than ships required to be registered), being:
(i) Australian - owned ships referred to in section 13;
(ii) ships wholly owned by residents of Australia or by residents of Australia and Australian nationals; or
(iii) ships operated solely by residents of Australia or Australian nationals or both.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall be taken to alter the character of a ship as an article of personal property.
(3) In this section, unregistered ship means a ship that is not registered under this Act or under the law of a foreign country.