On Sunday morning, the APL England ship travelling from China to Melbourne lost more than 40 containers overboard in heavy seas off the Illawarra coast.

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Other containers were hanging over the edge and at least 70 other containers were damaged.

The ship has been redirected to Brisbane as both Port Kembla and Port Botany were closed to shipping due to the heavy seas.

On Tuesday morning Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) surveyors checked the ship's seaworthiness as it lay anchored off the Queensland coast.

"The outcome of that inspection will help inform if and how the ship might be brought safely into port in conjunction with Maritime Safety Queensland," an AMSA spokesman said.

The news of the containers going overboard prompted Illawarra residents to wonder if their overseas orders were now sitting on the sea floor.

But at this stage it was unclear whether people would have to wait longer for their Wish or eBay purchases.

The AMSA spokesman said it was not possible to know what was in the lost containers until it was determined exactly which containers went for the deep dive.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will investigate but it was more interested in the container weights and how they were stacked than what was inside.