Located at the junction of the Coen River and Lankelly Creek, the wartime telephone carrier station standing next to the site of the original telegraph station of 1886, was a crucial link in military communications during World War II. The prefabricated steel frame building was erected in 1942 as part of an urgent upgrading of the Cape York telegraph line in response to the threat of Japanese invasion. It was one of four prefabricated telephone (or voice) carrier stations erected between Cape York and Mount Surprise. The work of upgrading telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula began in August 1942, a major undertaking involving the US Army Signal Corps, the Australian Army and the Postmaster-General’s Department.