Mv Cape Don

Provenance

Camera: ILCA-77M2
Lens: ----
Settings: 13mm · f/5.0 · 1/100 · ISO 400
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The bow of a large steel vessel at rest in harbour. The hull curves forward against calm water, the superstructure rising behind. Paint shows weathering consistent with decades of coastal service and a long static berth. The Coal Loader wharf infrastructure at Balls Head Bay, Waverton, is the setting. Photograph by Greg Davis.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

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Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

Mv Cape Don at MV Cape Don, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Mv Cape Don at MV Cape Don, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Mv Cape Don at MV Cape Don, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Mv Cape Don
Series: MV Cape Don
Catalogue: MCD-006
Process: Giclée
Captured: 30 January 2016
Camera: ILCA-77M2
Lens: ----
Aperture: f/5.0
Shutter: 1/100 s
ISO: 400
Focal length: 13 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Balls Head, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Balls Head, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

MV Cape Don sits at the former Coal Loader wharf at Balls Head Bay, Waverton, her steel bow rising above the waterline in the same position she has occupied since around 1998. Greg Davis photographed this view in 2016, looking along the vessel's 76-metre hull as it rests against heritage-listed infrastructure that once transferred coal from rail to ship from the 1920s through to 1992. The vessel was launched at the State Dockyard Newcastle on 28 May 1962. She was one of three Cape Class sisters designed by the Australian Shipping Board for the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service, alongside Cape Moreton and Cape Pillar. Her keel was laid in 1961; she was completed in January 1963 and made her maiden voyage on 29 March 1963. Displacing approximately 2,140 tonnes and carrying a complement of 39 personnel, she was purpose-built for lighthouse supply and navigational aids maintenance. Her 5-cylinder Polar diesel engine produced 2,000 BHP, driving a single Kamewa variable-pitch propeller. A Clarke Chapman crane, rated at 12.5 tonnes, handled cargo including navigation buoys and the ship's LARC-V amphibious vehicle, used at coastal stations too exposed for workboats. MV Cape Don arrived in Western Australia in 1964 and was home-ported at Fremantle, operating along WA and NT coastlines as well as Bass Strait and the eastern Australian coast. She retired from government service in 1990 as the progressive automation of Australian lighthouses reduced demand for supply tenders. The Commonwealth Lighthouse Service was absorbed into the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in 1995. Cape Moreton was sold in 1993. Cape Pillar was sold in 1989. MV Cape Don is the last of the three, and the only surviving vessel of the entire CLS fleet. She holds registration HV000208 on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels, and her berth within the Balls Head Coal Loader Complex sits on the NSW State Heritage Register, gazetted in 2021. The Sea Heritage Foundation and the MV Cape Don Society have been conserving her since the early 2000s, with public tours running every second Sunday.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Launched at the State Dockyard Newcastle on 28 May 1962, MV Cape Don served the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service for 27 years, supplying fuel, stores, and personnel to remote lighthouses and navigational aids around the Australian coastline. One of three Cape Class sisters designed by the Australian Shipping Board, she is the only one still afloat, and the sole surviving vessel of the entire CLS fleet. She has been berthed at Balls Head Bay, Waverton, since around 1998, and is managed by the Sea Heritage Foundation.

Brett Patman

The series

MV Cape Don

2015 · 18 photographs

MV *Cape Don* is a former Commonwealth Lighthouse Service tender, designed by the Australian Shipping Board and built at the State Dockyard in Newcastle. She was launched on 28 May 1962, commissioned in 1964, and worked the Australian coast until 1990, servicing lighthouses, lightships, and buoys across more than a quarter of a century. Her sister ships were *Cape Moreton* and *Cape Pillar*. Her log includes the 1973 recovery of two of HMS *Investigator*'s anchors from the Recherche Archipelago and the 1979 establishment of the first marine monitoring station in Bass Strait. Decommissioned in 1990, she is now moored at Berry's Bay, Waverton, where the Sea Heritage Foundation is restoring her as a museum and training ship.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

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