Somerset
Located near the tip on Gudang and Yadhaigana country, 770 kilometres north-northwest of Cairns and 45 kilometres east-southeast of Thursday Island, the locality of Somerset, split between the Torres Shire and the Northern Peninsula Area Region, contains the ruins of the first European settlement on Cape York Peninsula.
After the newly separated colony's first parliament passed an 1860 resolution favouring a direct connection with Britain via Torres Strait rather than Sydney, Queensland's first governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, left Brisbane aboard HMS Pioneer on 27 August 1862 to select an eligible site for a station at Cape York to look after Queensland's interests in the Torres Strait and a refuge and supply point for ships passing through the Strait. He chose a site on the mainland opposite Albany Island, which was named Somerset, in honour of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset.
The colonial authorities established Somerset in 1864, appointing John Jardine as Police Magistrate, Commissioner of Crown Lands and District Registrar for the District of North Cook. Henry Simpson succeeded Jardine as Police Magistrate in 1866. Native Police replaced the original garrison — a detachment of Royal Marines — the following year.
In the meantime, Jardine's sons—In 1864 – 65, John’s sons Francis (Frank) and Alexander (Alick) had brought a herd of cattle overland from Rockhampton, establishing a cattle station. On arrival at Somerset, Frank Jardine and his group started construction of the cattle station about two kilometres south of the settlement at Point Vallack, with an outpost at Lockerbie, fifteen kilometres to the west.
