Within six months of its establishment, the town had 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancy-goods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874.

A line for the telegraph from Cooktown to Maytown, 150 miles (240 km) west on the Palmer goldfields, was opened on 25 April 1876.

Meldrum disappeared later in the year, believed drowned, and the work was completed by Cooktown builder John Sullivan in June 1877.

By the late 1880s Cooktown had become the important centre not only of a thriving mining district (boosted by the 1887 discovery of tin along the Annan River), but also of pearling, beche-de-mer, and pastoral activity.

Constructed on a former mangrove swamp on land at the base of the ridge running south from Grassy Hill, the site was inundated with water during the wet season and lacked proper drainage.

Alterations to the building were undertaken in the 1970s, when a number of internal partitions were removed and the north and south verandahs enclosed.

It contributes to the streetscape and forms a visual grouping with the adjacent 1887 Post and Telegraph Office to the north.

It is located within a group of culturally significant buildings and civic works, including the adjacent post office and north of this the former Daintree Divisional Board's offices, Mary Watson's Monument (1886) on the nearby road reserve, the stone kerbing and channelling along Charlotte Street (1880s), and on the other side of the street, the former Seagren's Building (1880s), the former Bank of North Queensland (1892) and the former Queensland National Bank (1892).

The original timber chamferboards remain on the eastern and western faces except where the ends of the southern and northern verandahs have been enclosed with a fibrous cement material.

[1] A low pitched hipped roof runs along the front of the building which projects over the verandahs and is supported on timber posts.

Early French doors and double hung windows open onto the front and side verandahs of this section of the building.

[1] Cook Shire Council Chambers was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 8 April 1997 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important for its aesthetic contribution to the streetscape along central Charlotte Street, forming a visual grouping with the adjacent 1887 Post and Telegraph Office to the north and other culturally significant buildings and civic works nearby.

[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.