Flight Crew Total 11262; Flight Crew Type 2095
Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Procedure; Environment - Non Weather Related; Airspace Structure
We were assigned; and wrote down Dosel departure [and] cleared to 5;000 feet. The other IRO also copied the same clearance. The Dosel and the Bryson departure have a similar turn and it wasn't until passing ALBAK waypoint that the controller asked what departure we were on and issued a heading of 270. Communication at times can be an issue; PDC is an excellent way to close that weak link.
There is a problem with the way Melbourne delivers clearances and how pilots copy and interpret the clearance. Here is a typical clearance: cleared to ZZZ via dosel maintain 5000 dosel 9 departure freq 118.9. Note how the dosel fix is mentioned first and then the departure sid later which is different from the United States. This clearance crews have no problem with.Here is the clearance that gets crews in trouble departing runway 16: cleared to ZZZ via dosel maintain 5000 bison 5 departure frequency 118.9. Crews hear via dosel and assume that is the dosel 9 sid and it is not. Further for some reason the bison 5 never gets written down. Maybe because of the heavy accent and format are different. I have talked with three crews who have been charged with a pilot deviations coming out of Melbourne. All crews flew the dosel 9 and should have flown the bison 5!
Air carrier flight Crew reported a track deviation due to confusion with the departure clearance delivery format.