Hundreds of Victorians will be able to ‘deck’ their backyards out with teak following a massive donation of cruise ship furniture from P&O Cruises to Lifeline Australia in Melbourne today.

P&O Cruises has taken advantage of a three-day visit to Melbourne by two of its superliners – Pacific Pearl and Pacific Jewel – to change the outside furniture on hundreds of cabin balconies. As a result, more than 600 teak deck chairs and tables have been donated to Lifeline and will be sold in its stores from later this month.

The donation is part of an ongoing relationship with Lifeline, which sees P&O Cruises assist the crisis support charity with a wide variety of surplus material from its ships and offices. Previous donations include coffee tables, lamps, artwork and blankets.

Ann Sherry, CEO of Carnival Australia, which operates P&O Cruises, said she expected the furniture would be a strong seller.

“Hundreds of thousands of Australians holiday on P&O Cruises’ ships each year and we expect many of them will jump at the chance to purchase a piece of P&O Cruises’ furniture to remind them of their great times at sea,” Ms Sherry said. “Deck chairs and tables are really classic cruise items – so they are the perfect way to capture the spirit of a relaxing cruise holiday at home.”

Ms Sherry said Pacific Jewel and Pacific Pearl’s extended stay at Station Pier in Melbourne provided a great opportunity to remove the existing deck furniture from both ships, while around 4000 passengers enjoyed the Melbourne Cup and sightseeing in the Victorian capital.

“Changing furniture on a ship is a big logistical exercise so it’s fantastic to be able to get this done while we’re in Melbourne and see Lifeline benefit as a result.  It’s a great organisation which helps a lot of Australians, so we’re delighted to help them.”

Lifeline National Retail Support Manager Joe Magro said the charity was excited to receive such a substantial donation, with the furniture set to appear in Lifeline stores in Geelong, Gippsland and South West Victoria during November.

“The relationship between P&O Cruises and Lifeline Australia is a fantastic one for the charity. We’ve been recipients of good quality products from P&O Cruises’ ships in Queensland and NSW in the past, so we’re thrilled that our Victorian stores and customers will now benefit,” Mr Magro said.

“These cruise ship products generate great sales and much needed funds to help us continue Lifeline’s work providing telephone counselling and suicide prevention programs around the country,” he said.

P&O Cruises’ Pacific Pearl and Pacific Jewel arrived in Melbourne this morning, both travelling on six-night roundtrip Melbourne Cup cruises from Sydney. They depart Melbourne on Wednesday evening.