Article title: '''Old Laura Homestead''' siteId: 177 placeRef:602210
Heritage listing
Heritage listing
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Old Laura Homestead was listed on the [Queensland Heritage Register](/wiki/Queensland_Heritage_Register "Queensland Heritage Register") on 28 July 2000 having satisfied the following criteria.

**The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.**

Laura Station played an important role in the establishment of a pastoral industry on Cape York Peninsula, as one of the earliest pastoral holdings on Cape York Peninsula to operate under a license to occupy a new run of crown land. The place has associations with the development of Cooktown as a regional centre the Palmer River Goldfield, and with the establishment of transport and telegraphic communications on Cape York Peninsula.

The establishment of Laura Station contributed to the dispersal of Aboriginal people in the Laura district, and to the disruption of a traditional lifestyle, and to economic and social dependence on the Cape York Peninsula pastoral industry.

**The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.**

Laura Station contains a rare surviving example of an early Cape York Peninsula pastoral station house that is still structurally sound and in an intact and essentially original condition. The place contains outbuildings and yards which typify traditional methods of construction that are no longer practiced, and which demonstrate a continued reliance on the superior qualities of local building materials.

**The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.**

Laura Station represents an early example of the Cape York Peninsula "timber and iron" pastoral homestead tradition. The main house demonstrates regional construction characteristics of the time of its erection. The house, lean\-to verandah, workshop and saddle shed, meat house and stockmen's quarters, station stockyards each demonstrate the principal characteristics of these types of place.

**The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.**

Laura Station has strong and special associations for Aboriginal people through traditional affiliations with the land. The place also has strong and special associations for Aboriginal people through cultural and social ties with the homestead, and through economic dependence on the station as a component of the regional pastoral industry.


How does Laura Station demonstrate rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage?