[1] The former National Bank of Australasia at Mossman is a single storey masonry and timber building designed by notable Queensland architect, Lange Leopold Powell (1884–1938).

Constructed from 1935 to 1936, this prominent building illustrates the economic growth experienced by regional towns in Queensland sugar producing districts during the 1920s and 1930s.

George Elphinstone Dalrymple's North-East Coast Exploring Expedition of late 1873 brought attention to the resources around the Johnstone, Mulgrave, Russell, Daintree and Mossman rivers and from 1874 cedar stands on the latter were being logged extensively.

[1] By 1878 the most readily accessible cedar stands in the Mossman River district had been exhausted, although logging in more difficult to reach areas continued into the 1880s.

[2] In the aftermath, and with the continued rise in transient and permanent workers in the sugar industry, businesses at Port Douglas gradually gravitated to Mossman.

In the 1920s the Court House and banking facilities moved from Port Douglas to Mossman, and by the end of the decade many of the district's services, including the Post Office, were located in Mill Street.

During this period of exceptional growth in north Queensland's sugar towns, the National Bank of Australasia Ltd built its branch in Mill Street, Mossman.

The bank's decision to acquire land in Mill Street in 1934 is a strong indication that the Mossman district, buoyed by the expansion of the sugar industry, was economically stable during this period.

In 1997 the council, including its Engineering Department, occupied new purpose-built premises in Front Street, and the former bank building was then leased by Centrelink until 2001.

52, 20 June 2008) of this iconic place, the built environment values listed as being notable and worthy of preservation include those related to Mossman being the administrative centre of the Shire.

The facade is temple-like in its symmetrical composition comprising a number of elements of classical origin including widely spaced Doric columns between plain pilasters supporting a simplified entablature and cornice.

The columns and surrounding architrave have a terrazzo finish as does the exterior and portico walls to approximately one metre above ground floor level.

The floor to the portico, inlaid with the words "National Bank", and the architrave, corbels and lintel surrounding the main entrance are also finished in terrazzo.

[1] On the eastern elevation are four tall hooded windows each comprising two pairs of vertically aligned, six-pane timber framed casements.

The west elevation is similar except the bottom pair of casements of the southernmost window have been replaced by a door which is accessed by a ramp.

To the rear of the chamber a full height wall of perforated fibreboard, is a later addition, built in line with the front of the strong room, which remains with its original door in place.

A passageway leads past the strong room to these additions, which include toilets and a kitchen and are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.

The former National Bank of Australasia building at Mossman was constructed in 1935–1936 and makes an important contribution to our understanding of the era of prosperity experienced by many north Queensland towns during the expansion of the sugar industry in the 1920s and 1930s.

It is a small but prominent building in the main commercial precinct of Mossman, with a facade designed to impress and reassure patrons of the banking institution's financial stability and probity.

The building was constructed at a time when Mossman was emerging as the administrative heart of the Douglas Shire, a successful sugar-growing and -milling district of Queensland.

Displaying a hierarchy of functions and materials – an impressive, classically styled masonry facade with entrance portico and columns masking a utilitarian, weatherboard-clad building behind – and retaining its early banking chamber, strong room and fenestration, the building has a high degree of integrity and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type.

The former National Bank of Australasia building at Mossman is of aesthetic significance for the valuable and prominent contribution it makes – through scale, form, materials and design – to the distinctive visual character of the town.

This is characterised by a patterning of spaces and buildings comprising one to two storeys, built to the footpath with a formal street facade in contrast to a simpler structure behind.