Captain Carol Dooley
Shipmaster, Marine Pilot, Company Manager  

Raised in Western Australia’s Port Hedland, Captain Carol Dooley has forged a trailblazing path in Australia’s maritime and resources sectors. She entered the workforce as a teenager after choosing employment over completing Year 12 and started an electrical apprenticeship with Mt Newman Mining Company in Port Hedland. Making her mark from a young age, she became the first female electrical fitter hired by a mining company in Australia, working in an environment without even basic facilities for women.

Six years into her career, a life-changing experience sailing on the Leeuwin II during the Bicentenary Tall Ships Race ignited a passion for seafaring. Dooley pursued a maritime career, steadily building sea time and qualifications, rising through the ranks to ultimately achieve certification as a Foreign-Going Unlimited Ship Master, allowing command of the largest ocean-going ships. She was the first woman in Australia to captain an LNG carrier, the first female International Shipmaster from Western Australia and one of very few female LNG captains in the world at that time. Dooley was one of the first six female marine pilots in Australia and made history again as Shell Shipping’s first female captain, overseeing high-stakes LNG operations critical to global energy supply.

Following retirement from active sea duty in 2005 and becoming a Marine Pilot, Dooley was appointed as a director of the Board of the Australian Maritime College, a federal maritime training institution, the first woman shipmaster to hold such a position, reinforcing her commitment to developing future generations of mariners. She was inducted into WA’s Women’s Hall of Fame in 2024, her legacy continuing through mentorship and advocacy, proving that women can excel in the highest levels of technical and command roles across interconnected maritime-resources industries.