During the first years of settlement Atherton was also a staging post for Cobb and Co Coaches, which stopped at the Barron Valley Hotel on their way between Herberton and Port Douglas.

Atherton provided the surrounding mining population with the bulk of its produce and its importance as a regional centre was cemented by the arrival of the railway from Cairns in 1903.

[1] Sconder (Alexander) Nasser, a Lebanese migrant whose family had emigrated from Kousba to Clermont in Queensland in the late nineteenth century, took over the ownership of the hotel in 1930.

Prior to purchasing the Barron Valley Hotel, Nasser ran the town's first taxi service, operated a barber shop and built the first motor car garage in Atherton.

[1] In the late 1930s Nasser decided to replace the two-storeyed timber hotel with a more substantial structure and engaged prominent Cairns architects Richard Hill and AJH Taylor to design it.

This association with Hill and Taylor, as well as the distinctive interior detailing, underpinned the hotel's listing as a significant example of 20th century Queensland architecture by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 2005.

[1] The new Barron Valley Hotel was a two-storeyed brick building which featured 30 bedrooms, a billiards parlour, two bars, and a lounge and dining room separated by decorative leadlight folding doors, which could be opened to create one large dance hall or ballroom accommodating up to 250 dancers.

[1] In 1942, during World War II, the Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military Forces, General Sir Thomas Blamey, investigated using the Atherton and Evelyn Tablelands as a base for rehabilitating and training troops.

Four officers made a thorough examination of the area, where already more than 5,000 troops were located, and selected a number of sites in the relatively dry western belt of the Tableland.

The Tablelands were within easy reach of the battlefields of New Guinea and the climate gave the troops respite from the tropical heat of the coast and assisted in the convalescence of sick and wounded soldiers.

The Barron Valley Hotel was requisitioned by the Australian Army as an officers club, mess hall and accommodation for two and a half years.

Under Michael Nasser's ownership, the hotel underwent a major refurbishment between 2002 and 2007, which included: replacing the old iron roof; installing wheelchair access to a new deck and dining area; developing new men's and disabled bathroom facilities; upgrading the kitchen; and restoring the early furniture.

[1] The enclosed verandah which overhangs the Main Street footpath is the principal feature of the facade and is supported at the kerb line by piers constructed of bullnosed bricks.

Above the entrance doors and adjacent narrow windows, a glazed sign with metallic trim bears the name of the hotel in large stylised lettering.

[1] The large enclosed verandah extending over the footpath houses recreation areas and a meeting room divided with single-skin timber framed partition walls.

[1] In the grounds behind the hotel facing Railway Lane is a detached bottle shop which is a later addition and is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.

The large Barron Valley Hotel has accommodated visitors to the region, including dignitaries, officials and tourists, and has provided a popular meeting venue and social and recreational focus for Atherton and district since the 1940s.

[1] The Barron Valley Hotel is important for its historical association with the Atherton Tableland as a base for allied training and rehabilitation during World War II, being requisitioned for about two and a half years during 1942-1944 as the Australian Army's officers' club, mess hall and accommodation, and providing briefly a home to General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military Forces.

The main entrance foyer and staircase, which display a lavish use of North Queensland timbers in streamlined decorative finishes, fixtures and early furniture, are particularly fine.

[1] The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial "Art Deco" hotel of the late 1930s/early 1940s in a regional centre, retaining:[1] The hotel is important in exemplifying the commercial work of the prominent Cairns architectural firm of R Hill and AJH Taylor (1927-c. 1940 and 1945-1952), which made a significant contribution to far north Queensland's built environment in the interwar years.