History
Coen Carrier Station, a prefabricated steel and corrugated iron building, was erected in 1942 as part of an urgent upgrading of the Cape York Peninsula overland telegraph line (established in the 1880s), undertaken in response to Japanese aggression in the Pacific and South East Asia. It was one of four identical carrier stations. [1]
In early 1942 elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) proposed an invasion of Australia. This proposal was opposed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who regarded it as being unfeasible given Australia's geography and the strength of the Allied defences. Instead, the Japanese military adopted a strategy of isolating Australia from the United States by advancing through the South Pacific. This offensive was abandoned following the Battle of the Coral Sea and Battle of Midway in May and June 1942, and all subsequent Japanese operations in the vicinity of Australia were undertaken to slow the advance of Allied forces.
Far North Queensland had emerged as the new "frontier" following the discovery of gold on the Palmer River in the early 1870s, and the resultant impetus to prospect further north. Various smaller goldfields were opened at this period. An abortive gold rush at Coen in 1878-80 was re-kindled in 1886, and by 1889 Coen comprised a one-street township of tents and bark huts. The Coen Goldfield was proclaimed in 1892. [1]
Far North Queensland is the northernmost part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Centered on the city of Cairns, the region stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Country. The region has Australia's only international border, with the independent nation of Papua New Guinea.
The Palmer River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The area surrounding the river was the site of a gold rush in the late 19th century which started in 1873.
A telegraph station had been erected at Coen in 1886, when the overland telegraph line from Laura, at the southern end of Cape York Peninsula, to Thursday Island at the northern end, was being constructed. The line, which opened to Thursday Island on 25 August 1887, provided contact between the isolated communities of the peninsula, as well as a link to southern capitals via Cooktown, and played an important role in the development of the region. The expansion of telegraphic communication on the peninsula was also an integral element of Brisbane's administrative control of Far North Queensland and of communication with British-annexed New Guinea and the Torres Straits from 1885, and was considered important for the defence of Queensland in the late 19th century. [1]
Laura is a small town and locality in Cook Shire, Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland, Australia. It is on the only road north towards the tip of the peninsula, and is the centre for the largest collection of prehistoric rock art in the world. It also forms the northern apex of the "Scenic Triangle" between Cooktown, Lakeland, and Laura. In the 2011 census, Laura had a population of 80 people.
Cooktown is a town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is located about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) north of Brisbane and 328 kilometres (204 mi) north of Cairns, by road. Cooktown is about 857 kilometres (533 mi) south of Cape York by road. At the time of the 2016 census, Cooktown had a population of 2,631.
Brisbane is the capital of and the most populated city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of 2.5 million, and the South East Queensland region, centred on Brisbane, encompasses a population of more than 3.5 million. The Brisbane central business district stands on the historic European settlement and is situated inside a peninsula of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range, sprawling across several of Australia's most populous local government areas (LGAs)—most centrally the City of Brisbane, which is by far the most populous LGA in the nation. The demonym of Brisbane is "Brisbanite".
From the late 1930s, with the impending threat of war with Japan in the Pacific, telecommunications once again were identified as an important element of national defence. Even before Australia's declaration of war on Japan on 9 December 1941, (following simultaneous attacks by the Japanese on Hawaii, Hong Kong and Malaya), there was urgent interest in upgrading defence facilities on Cape York Peninsula. The two priorities were serviceable airfields and adequate communications. By July 1941 a new airfield about 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Coen, and a new runway at Iron Range (near Lockhart River), had been completed, yet at this period the Coen Telegraph Station had only morse facilities and a 6-line pyramid switchboard (local telephone only). [1]
The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' formal entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning.
The Japanese Invasion of Malaya began just after midnight on 8 December 1941 before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was the first major battle of the Pacific War, and was fought between ground forces of the British Indian Army and the Empire of Japan.
Lockhart River is a town in the Aboriginal Shire of Lockhart River and a locality split between the Aboriginal Shire of Lockhart River and the Shire of Cook, in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Lockhart River had a population of 542, which increased to 642 at the 2011 Census.
The bombing of Darwin and Townsville by the Japanese in March and July 1942 respectively, and the arrival of American troops in north Queensland from March 1942, hastened the plans to deliver improved telecommunications to the Peninsula. Australia became the centre of communications in the South Pacific. Following the Coral Sea and Midway campaigns in May 1942, and the shifting of the war north to New Guinea, it was clear that north Queensland and Cape York Peninsula would play a crucial role in the offensive against Japan. Adequate telecommunications were essential to link the airfields of far north Queensland and the fighting fronts in New Guinea and beyond, with the command centres in Townsville, Brisbane and the southern capitals. [1]
The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin, on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. On that day, 242 Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, attacked the town, ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java during World War II.
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia, taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. The battle is historically significant as the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which the opposing ships neither sighted nor fired directly upon one another.
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chūichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondō near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare".
The wartime upgrading of telecommunications from Townsville to Thursday Island was a dedicated defence facility, but was linked directly to the 1880s overland telegraph. An R Type Carrier System, developed in Australia during World War II to cater for pockets of telecommunications traffic congestion, particularly in places where a telephone carrier was not available to supply a channel for a voice frequency system, was installed along the old overland telegraph route from Mount Surprise to Cape York. The R Type system was limited to four duo-directional channels using a frequency between 3300 and 5220 cycles per second, which was above normal voice frequency but below the range of other established carrier systems, which used high frequency bands. There was no interference when both normal speech frequency and the carrier frequency operated over the same pair of copper wires. In effect, one pair of copper wires from Townsville to Thursday Island was to carry 3 facilities: normal voice frequency telephone, upgraded telegraph carrier, and a telephone carrier. [1]
Cape York Peninsula's R Type Carrier System necessitated the installation of: [1]
- a pair of copper wires strung on the existing pole route between Townsville and Cape York, with loops into Cooktown and Iron Range, a total of 1,036 miles (1,667 km)
- a three channel carrier system (telephone) with terminals at Townsville and Cape York and repeaters at Charters Towers, Mount Surprise, Fairview and Coen
- a four channel telegraph system with terminals at Townsville and Cape York
- voice frequency repeaters at Charters Towers, Mt Surprise, Fairview, Coen and Cape York
- submarine cable from Cape York to Horn Island and from Horn Island to Thursday Island
- power equipment, including diesel generators and batteries, at Mt Surprise, Fairview, Coen and Cape York
- buildings (carrier stations) at Mount Surprise, Fairview, Coen and Cape York to accommodate equipment.
The work of upgrading telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula commenced in August 1942, and was a major undertaking. The US Army Signal Corps provided 1200 men, the Australian Army Signals made 600 men available, and the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) provided 60 supervisors. Australian Army Engineers under the supervision of the PMG were responsible for that part of the line northwards from the Hann River, including the upgrading of facilities at Coen and the construction of the new loop line from Coen to Iron Range, a massive job. Progress was rapid, and the whole of the line work was completed by 23 November 1942. [1]
At Coen, a carrier station was erected adjacent to the 1886 telegraph station and connected to it. Like the buildings erected at Mount Surprise, Fairview and Cape York, the Coen Carrier Station was of pre-fabricated steel frame construction, with outer walls of corrugated iron, concrete floors, and fibrous cement roofing. They were partitioned internally with fibrous-cement sheeting to provide equipment, power and battery rooms, and living accommodation for two or three maintenance staff. It is thought that these buildings were designed and pre-fabricated in one of the PMG's workshops in Melbourne, Adelaide or Sydney. [1]
Due to the impossibility of obtaining carrier telegraph equipment from overseas during the war years, the PMG's Melbourne workshops manufactured and assembled a prototype four-channel VF telegraph (Type R), which was in design early in 1942, and intended principally for use by the Army Signals Corps in forward areas and for combat use in New Guinea and the Pacific. This was the equipment installed between October and December 1942 at the Cape York Peninsula carrier stations. The buildings were far from complete during installation. All telecommunications channels between Townsville and Cape York were in service on 9 December 1942, but the Coen Carrier Station was not completed until Boxing Day. A PMG officer and two Army signals personnel staffed each of the carrier stations, with the PMG officers in charge. [1]
The improved telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula played a vital role in defeating Japanese aggression. In 1945, following the cessation of hostilities, control of the telecommunications facilities reverted to the Postmaster-General's Department. The circuits were now available for public use, permitting for the first time telephone trunk calls from Cape York Peninsula to the rest of Australia. In the mid-1950s, improvements in the system enabled the telephone exchange in Coen to be removed to a building in the main street of the town, although working equipment remained in the 1886 Telegraph Station and in the Carrier Station. By the second half of the 1960s, the 1886 Telegraph Station in Coen had become redundant and it was removed to Rokeby Pastoral Station and re-used as a house. It has since been destroyed. [1]
In 1982 a broadband radio system was in service as far as Coen, at which time the open-wire route to the south was abandoned as a trunk route, and the installation of an automatic exchange at Coen was made possible. Broadband was extended to Thursday Island in 1987, at which time the open-wire line north of Coen was abandoned. [1]
Throughout this era of improvement, Coen Carrier Station was used chiefly to house telephone equipment. During the installation of the broadband system, it served as living quarters for PMG workers. Following completion of the broadband system, the building was used to accommodate Telecom service personnel working in the region; but has been unoccupied since 1990. The site is now located within a Ranger Station operated by the Department of Environment. [1]
Of the four carrier stations erected on Cape York Peninsula in 1942, the Coen Carrier Station is the most intact. Fairview Carrier Station was closed in 1949 and, although still in situ, is now an outstation of Olive Vale Station. In 1958 the Mount Surprise to Coen system was re-routed from Cooktown to Coen and the original line from Mount Surprise to Fairview via Palmerville was abandoned as a trunk route in 1963. The Cape York Carrier Station was closed in 1960. [1]
Description
Coen Carrier Station is located on a gently sloping site, approximately 45 by 50 metres (148 ft × 164 ft), to the north side of Coen at the junction of the Coen River and Lankelly Creek. It is adjacent to the site of the original Telegraph Station. The Carrier Station building is essentially rectangular in form, set on a concrete slab. The framing of the building is a combination of timber and steel. The base plates are timber while all the vertical members are steel. Timber frames house the windows and doors. The timber is generally in sound condition throughout the building, although termite damage is evident in some locations. The exterior walls are 1-inch (25 mm) ripple iron that is screwed to the steel frame. The interior fibrous cement sheet walls are also screwed to the steel frame. The joints are covered with wide timber cover-strips which are nailed to the base plates and the occasional timber members. The original windows are timber framed, and located on the west elevation. Louvres have been installed on the southern elevation. [1]
The original part of the building consists of three rooms; an equipment room, power room and battery room. Two rooms of equal size and shape are located at the southern end of the building with the third across the whole of the northern end. No original telegraph equipment remains in the building. Attached to the eastern side is a glazed verandah running the full length of the building that is clad in ripple iron up to the height of the sill. The internal rear wall of the verandah is clad in 1-inch (25 mm) ripple iron. At the southern end of the verandah there is a kitchen annexe. This projects slightly and is clad in standard 3-inch (76 mm) corrugated iron. [1]
A laundry and bathroom are attached at the northern end of the building and have been constructed on a concrete slab, higher than the level of the main floor. The structure is timber framed, clad both internally and externally in fibrous cement sheeting. It has a skillion roof and louvred windows. There is a path leading north-west out from the laundry. At the north and south ends of the building, the original fixtures for the telegraph and electric wires are still visible. [1]
The ceiling framing, like the walls, is a mixture of timber and iron. The rafters and king-posts are iron, while the battens are timber. The gable roof is clad with 3-inch (76 mm) corrugated fibrous cement nailed to battens. The roof eaves are supported on timber and steel brackets. A corrugated iron awning over the eastern verandah is attached to the main roof and is supported on timber brackets. A large ventilator runs along the ridge of the roof and small circular one set into the roof is located near the north-west corner. [1]
The remains of three water tanks are located at the north-east, south- east and sout-west corners of the building. A Colorbond steel shed with a flat roof has recently been erected at the north-west corner of the site. [1]
Heritage listing
The former Coen Carrier Station was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 May 1997 having satisfied the following criteria. [1]
The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.
The Coen Carrier Station is significant for the important role it played as part of the defence and communications network of Cape York Peninsula, which was crucial to Australia during World War II. The place includes the site of the adjacent 1886 Telegraph Office (demolished), and illustrates the continued association of Coen with telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula for well over a century, providing contact between isolated communities on the peninsula and with southern capitals and beyond. [1]
The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.
The building, constructed in 1942, is rare as one of Queensland's few remaining carrier station buildings designed and prefabricated in Australia by the Postmaster-General's workshops during World War II, and installed under difficult circumstances. [1]
The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period.
The former Coen Carrier Station is significant as a development of new technology. [1]
The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.
The station has a special association with the work of the Postmaster-General's Department in developing new technology in Australia during World War II, and with the important work of the Australian Army Signals Corps, who installed the Cape York Peninsula line and carrier equipment in 1942 and staffed the building during the war. [1]
