The 2000-tonne ship at risk of sinking and causing chaos on harbour and across the city

Sydney Morning Herald

08-06-2025

The owners of a 2000-tonne ship disintegrating near Sydney Harbour's busiest navigational zone have been given 28 days to come up with a restoration plan before the vessel is seized. Authorities say it could cause serious environmental and economic damage if it sinks.
Maritime NSW last month issued the Sea Heritage Foundation with an 'unsafe vessel notice' in relation to the former lighthouse tender MV Cape Don, which is riddled with asbestos and lead paint, a day after receiving questions from the Herald about the ship.
The charitable organisation has until June 20 to present Maritime NSW with a detailed vessel repair management plan and evidence of a confirmed booking at a dry dock to undertake repairs.
It will then need to convince the Port Authority of NSW that the Cape Don can be towed from Waverton to the dry dock at Garden Island without falling apart en route.
If that were to happen under the Harbour Bridge or at Circular Quay, the harbourmaster would be forced to stop shipping, throwing the cruise industry into chaos and cutting off fuel shipments to the Gore Bay Terminal, which is a major contributor to Sydney's total supply.
'Can you imagine the disruption to ferry services and shipping?' Sydney Harbour waterways operations manager Drew Jones said. 'The economic impact of that would be huge.'
The disintegration of the Cape Don is the most alarming version of a scenario that is occurring throughout Sydney Harbour and ports down the length of the coast, where taxpayers are picking up the tab for the disposal of sunken boats bought by short-pocketed dreamers.
It has also raised questions about large, disused pieces of maritime infrastructure being permanently moored in Sydney's harbour, and whether the public interest is being served by the commercial arrangements between their owners and the NSW government.
In 2022, the government spent $5 million salvaging the wreck of the Baragoola, a 500-tonne former Manly ferry that sank off Balls Head in Waverton, 13 years after a volunteer group had bought it for $50,000 to save it from being scrapped.
The disposal and salvage of boats generally costs taxpayers about $2 million per year. The cost of salvaging a sunken boat is double that of one that is afloat.
Concerned about an increase in the number of derelict and ageing moored vessels, the government last year amended maritime laws to allow it to issue unsafe vessel notices to boats no longer capable of transportation.
The change allows the government to dispose of former vessels if the owner fails to comply and to take legal action to recover the costs of salvage from the owner.
The Cape Don is the most significant vessel to be issued with a notice since the changes took effect.
An inspection by the government's naval architect last year and a further report from an independent expert this year raised significant concerns about the integrity of the hull, which is rusting and pocked with football-sized holes.
Earlier this year, taxpayers footed a $76,000 bill for removing 16,000 litres of fuel from the ship to avoid an environmental disaster if it went down, and the owners were asked to loop a boom around the vessel to contain any debris that might spill.
Sea Heritage Foundation chair CJ Manjarres-Wahlberg declined to comment on whether the Cape Don had adequate insurance cover to pay for the full cost of salvage if the boat were to sink, which could cost significantly more than the Baragoola based on its size.
But he said the Cape Don was not at risk of sinking.
The foundation had been meeting fortnightly with Maritime NSW to work through issues identified in a 2023 condition report and was 80 per cent through what needed to be done before the ship could be dry docked for repairs, he said.
'The penetrations you can see go into tanks, and they're above the water line, so the ship will not sink,' Manjarres-Wahlberg said.
However, the foundation has long struggled to raise funds to repair the ship's hull, which Manjarres-Wahlberg estimated would cost $3 million. But maritime industry sources believe it would cost at least double that.
Sea Heritage Foundation posted losses in the last two years for which statements are available, and it turned to crowdfunding in October to pay for new firefighting equipment. It has raised $200 towards the $1500 target.
The foundation has also been raising money by offering 'ghost tours' through the ship to showcase its 1960s decor and furniture. Maritime NSW ordered the foundation to cease public access to the ship when it issued the unsafe vessel notice.
Save Our Sydney Harbour co-ordinator Stuart King said it was clear the Sea Heritage Foundation could not afford to restore the ship.
'It's an absolute travesty that the Cape Don has been allowed to deteriorate like that,' King said. 'The taxpayer is going to have to foot the bill no matter what.'
Maritime NSW has held more than 40 meetings with members of the foundation over the past two years, but waterways operations manager Drew Jones said the condition of the boat continued to deteriorate.
'Their intentions are fantastic, but realistically I think they're losing the battle,' Jones said.
'It's gone from needing some love to being beyond repair. It needs a knight in shining armour, really.'
Greens MP Kobi Shetty, who has been agitating for the removal of derelict vessels on behalf of her constituents in the Balmain electorate, said there was a lack of accountability for boat owners, as it was cheaper to leave them on moorings than to restore or dispose of them.
She wanted the amendments to include a 12-month time limit for former vessels to be anchored or moored at a single location, and for any person responsible for a vessel to be required to indemnify the minister for the potential costs arising from dealing with a vessel if it becomes unsafe. But these suggestions were knocked back.
'Without some sort of mechanism to put the cost back on the owners, they're just incentivised to let their vessels sit there,' Shetty said.
'The environmental impact is one of the biggest concerns for us. When things like asbestos, fibreglass, lead paint and fuel are coming off derelict vessels into the harbour, it's going to affect marine species like seahorses, impact fishing oyster farming and recreational swimming, all of these things that are really special about the harbour.'
The Baragoola
For environmentalists, the slow demise of the Cape Don has dredged up bad memories of the Baragoola, which took almost six months to salvage when it sank in January 2022.
The 99-year-old vessel had ferried passengers between Circular Quay and Manly for six decades until it was retired in 1983 and became the first moveable object to be put under a permanent conservation order.
One owner ploughed $1 million into restoring it, before giving up and selling it for $25,000. When the Baragoola Preservation Association bought it from the next owner in 2009, the conservation order had been removed due to its state of disrepair, and it was destined for the scrap heap.
However, the association's restoration efforts were outpaced by the vessel's deterioration, some of the original volunteers walked away, and at least two people claimed in its final years to have bought it for $5000 from a Gumtree seller.
One of them, a convicted drug offender who had recently been released from prison, took up permanent residence inside and described himself as the consulting marine engineer.
The Baragoola Preservation Association called him a squatter and took to Facebook 10 days before it sank to assert that the Baragoola was not for sale.
'Another individual is claiming he bought the vessel,' the group's administrator wrote.
'There is enough false rumours out there. More arnt [sic] needed.'
But after the Baragoola sank, that post was deleted and the association backed away from its claim on the title, telling the Herald that 'unfortunately' it no longer owned the Baragoola as it had 'ceded the vessel [to] the people on board'.
It fell to taxpayers to fund the cost of its recovery.
King said he sympathised with boat owners to an extent.
'It's emotional stories,' King said.
'It's the same with the Cape Don and the Baragoola, people fall in love with it and say 'we're hoping to fix it up'. But fixing old boats is expensive. It's worse than a racehorse. You just throw money at it.'
Aqua Cube
Last year, a disused utility barge in Berrys Bay caught fire. The blaze threatened to spread to other boats, including the historic South Steyne ferry and the Aqua Cube, the pontoon formerly known as Flanagan's Afloat restaurant, which is deeply unpopular among the residents who look onto it.
Real estate agent Ray Chan bought the Aqua Cube in 2007 in a spirit of nostalgia: he had celebrated his 21st birthday there when it was a floating restaurant in Rose Bay, but it has been idle ever since, and vandals have damaged it.
Chan said he had spent $3.7 million on the vessel, but that he had struggled to find a place to operate it as a restaurant on Sydney Harbour. He was waiting for the economy to pick up before putting more money into it when it was damaged by the barge fire, and he is now in a fight with his insurance company.
'It really brings tears to my eyes,' Chan said. 'It was my retirement dream. I totally understand Sydney Harbour needs to clean up and fight for the beautiful environment, but I do not agree it's derelict until after the fire.'
Twice since December, the Aqua Cube has come loose on its mooring and has swung close to other vessels. In December, it hit two moorings and caused a steel walkway to collapse.
Sean Langman, managing director of Noakes shipyard, said Chan had stopped paying port fees and he was tired of securing the vessel at his own risk at the request of NSW Maritime. But the vessel had nowhere else to go so he was stuck with it.
'The floating restaurant is 100 per cent derelict,' Langman said.
'Ray hasn't been a boat owner, is not a maritime person and doesn't understand that to get service for anything in this economy, you've got to pay your bills, as painful and as unpalatable as that can be at times.'
Chan said he would resume paying once the wharf had been fixed and that Langman's claims were 'ridiculous'.
'He has been collecting rent for years and never did a single thing,' Chan said.
The non-payment of port fees is also lost income for the NSW government, which receives 50 per cent of the revenue from any vessel moored at the shipyard.
Maritime NSW director Darren Wood said the Aqua Cube was not at risk of sinking, though he said it was ugly. 'Our instinct is to give everyone the opportunity to restore,' he said.
Floating dry dock
Across the harbour, Noakes owns a floating dry dock that might be the least-loved vessel on Sydney Harbour. North Sydney Council went to the NSW Land and Environment Court in 2022 to prevent it from being moored in Berrys Bay and won. The court found that it would 'undermine the naturalness of the waterway of Berrys Bay, contrary to the principle that protection of the natural assets of Sydney Harbour should have precedence over all other interests'.
Since then, the 1000-tonne vessel has been parked in Snails Bay, though it is not licensed to operate in state waters. It is only used occasionally at Garden Island.
Langman said the vessel continued to serve a purpose and that it had fallen victim to changing social attitudes that valued real estate over the harbour's working heritage.
'That piece of infrastructure that sits in Snails Bay is a fully compliant, seagoing vessel and sits there as a lady-in-waiting to do a job for state and federally owned assets that protect our borders, so it's a great thing,' Langman said.
The moorings in Snails Bay are managed by Sydney Superyacht Holdings, which splits its revenue with the NSW government, an arrangement that has been in place since it was awarded the contract in 2009.
It was supposed to be reviewed after six months, but documents obtained by Save Our Sydney Harbour under freedom of information laws show that this never occurred, and the agreement has been rolled over by way of emails and handwritten notes each year since it was signed.
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The moorings were not put out to tender until 2023, when the government said there was limited interest from private providers. Transport for NSW and Sydney Superyacht Holdings are negotiating a new short-term service agreement.
A Transport for NSW spokesman said Maritime was undertaking a broad operational review of wharf management on Sydney Harbour.
'Until this review is complete and priorities are established, further changes to service providers or management models are deferred,' he said.
But King said there was little accountability to ensure the interests of NSW taxpayers were being balanced against commercial interests. The moorings in Snails Bay were not being used for their intended purpose, he said.
'They were designed for the short-term berthing of vessels whilst they unloaded and then departed. Not for the parking for over 10 years of redundant items without them properly being cared for,' he said.
'The citizens of Birchgrove – and everyone else in NSW – are subsidising a handful of private companies to keep their unemployable, stranded and decaying assets fouling the environment of a prime bay in Sydney Harbour and depriving the public of far more beneficial uses.'