 He was then assigned as acting head keeper at Dodding Head, Great Burin Island Light (from 1870), promoted to head keeper at Cape Spear (1881–1887), and assigned again to Fort Amherst, this time as head keeper (1887–1924).In 1891, Austin Oke Sheppard's daughter, Mary Ann Harriet Oke Sheppard, married Captain Robert Whiting Wakeham, a well-known master mariner, decorated numerous times for heroism at sea.On 8 July 1892, Sheppard docked the station's boat at Queen's Wharf (St. John's, NL), where it burned to its waterline as the Great Fire of 1892 swept through the city and he found another means of escape.