[1] 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.

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.

[1] 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.

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 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.

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.

[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.

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.

[1] The improved telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula played a vital role in defeating Japanese aggression.

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.

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.

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.

[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.

A corrugated iron awning over the eastern verandah is attached to the main roof and is supported on timber brackets.

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.

[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.