Galley

The galley of MV Cape Don occupied a practical, working space at the heart of the vessel. Steamers, an oven, hot plates, and deep fryers run along the left side of the frame. The rear of the room served as the bakery. A prep bench sits in the centre, and to the right a passage leads through to the sailors' serving pantry and, beyond that, the crews mess. The layout reflects a ship designed to feed a complement of 39 personnel across extended voyages. MV Cape Don was built at the State Dockyard, Newcastle, with her keel laid in 1961 and her launch on 28 May 1962. She completed fitting out in January 1963 and made her maiden voyage on 29 March 1963. Designed by the Australian Shipping Board and constructed as one of three Cape Class lighthouse supply tenders, she served the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service for 27 years, supplying fuel, equipment, and stores to lighthouse stations and navigational aids along the Australian coastline. Her primary operating area covered the Western Australian and Northern Territory coasts, with her home port at Fremantle. The galley fed crews on supply runs to remote and often inaccessible stations. The LARC-V amphibious vehicle carried aboard underlines the conditions some of those deliveries required. Through it all, the galley and bakery produced meals for the men who worked those routes. Cape Don retired from government service in 1990. After a period working cargo runs between Australia and the Solomon Islands and a stint laid up on the Clarence River, she was sailed to Sydney and moored at Balls Head Bay, Waverton, at the former Coal Loader wharf, where she remains. She is the sole surviving vessel of the entire Commonwealth Lighthouse Service fleet. This photograph was made aboard MV Cape Don in 2016, the galley equipment remaining largely in place years after the vessel's last government voyage.