Musgrave
Situated within the Cook Shire locality of Yarraden, 340 kilometres northwest of Cairns and 116 kilometres northwest of Laura on the Peninsula Development Road in Yadaneru and Lama Lama country, the former Musgrave Telegraph Station was named after Queensland Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave and dates back to 1886. The presence of hostile Aboriginal groups during the early years saw holes for firearms made in the walls around the station's verandah to fight off attacks on the building. Since it was unsafe to venture outside at night, the building's centre was taken up with water tanks.
Musgrave, along with Palmerville, Fairview, Coen, Mein, Moreton, McDonnell and Paterson, was a repeater station on the overland telegraph line between Mount Surprise and the tip of Cape York. All the Cape York stations (Musgrave, Coen, Mein, Morton, McDonnell and Paterson) were pre-cut and framed in Brisbane with banks of batteries and a generator to power the telegraph line.
The Postmaster General's Department closed some of the line's stations in the late 1920s due to high maintenance costs and low traffic. While Musgrave closed in June 1929, the site remains a link on microwave and optic fibre networks.
Fred Shepard, who owned Lilyvale Station and was acquiring the leases on the Artemis and Mary Valley stations, bought Musgrave off the PMG Department as a freehold property in 1931. His widow and family continued to operate the property after Shepard died in 1952. Although the estate was subsequently divided, Musgrave's location and increasing numbers of travellers prompted the family to turn the former homestead into a roadhouse. Meals and drinks were served from the building until a new cafe and accommodation were built in 1980. The business is still owned and operated by members of the Shepard family.
Missing links:
Yarraden
Peninsula Development Road
Palmerville
Fairview
Coen
Mein
Moreton
McDonnell
Paterson
Postmaster General's Department
Fred Shepard
Lilyvale
Artemis
Mary Valley
