[1] The Archer brothers had made a private expedition to the Rockhampton district in 1853, and were the first Europeans to record and chart the Fitzroy River.

[1] After the short lived Canoona gold rush of 1858, Rockhampton was proclaimed as a town and declared a "port of entry" in 1858.

For Hutchinson this was a time of great social disturbance coping with the aftermath of several thousand diggers descending onto a settlement consisting of three buildings and a small wharf.

In the same period Hutchinson was also requesting that the government provide public works in Rockhampton especially roads, as the tracks existing in the town at that time were impassable.

The Certificate of title was issued to George Ranken of Young, and Harriet Ann Cathcart Hutchinson of Windsor.

In 1898 James Howard's father William had constructed for himself the first motor cycle in Rockhampton, a tandem bicycle with a single cylinder 4 h.p.

The horseless carriage had made its first appearance in central Queensland in 1902 when Dr FH Voss became the owner of a steam powered locomobile.

Edwin Hockings was educated at Brisbane Grammar School, and became the articled pupil of architect Richard Gailey.

Hockings was architect on buildings such as St Peter's Church of England, Barcaldine (1898–99) and the Rockhampton Town Hall (1939–41).

The premises in Quay Street continued to be run as a motor show room, however an addition had been made to the rear of the building when a galvanised extension was constructed to act as a workshop and repair facility.

At the time that the dealership changed hands a large electric advertising sign was fixed to the front of the building.

[1] Various tenants in the chambers have included apart from CJ Edwards real estate agents as well as other semi professional offices.

[2] Edwards Chambers is a simple single storeyed building on Quay Street Rockhampton, situated overlooking the Fitzroy River.

[1] The Quay Street facade of the building is symmetrically composed and dominated by a cantilevered awning running along the entire face and interrupting the composition.

At the street level of this section several openings for both windows and glazed doors have been inserted, and these are separated by corbelled mouldings.

Flanking this central section are symmetrical end bays featuring large archways with architraves and keystone and voussoir elements scoured in the render.

Though previously opened these archways, identifiable only above the awning, have been filled with glazed doors and windows, forming shopfronts.

[1] The south eastern side party wall is shared with the one storeyed building adjacent to Edwards Chambers.

The north western concrete wall has several small infilled openings at the far end where toilets are located internally.

[1] Because the building was originally a showroom, the interior was simply designed as a large open space and is therefore with subsequent renovation devoid of any features which suggest its early date.

These are formed with glazed and plasterboard partitioning, a suspended ceiling grid with fibrous cement panels, and a ceramic tiled floor.

The rear section of the building, separated by a concrete wall is a large unceiled shed which extends to the Quay Lane boundary.

Edwards Chambers built as a car garage is important in demonstrating the evolution of motor transport in Rockhampton and central Queensland.

The building demonstrates the servicing requirements associated with the introduction of motor transport in the early part of the twentieth century.

[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.