It is a three-storey masonry building, constructed in 1883 and 1886 for Thankful Willmett, a well known stationer and printer who was also active in local and regional politics.

He ran a store and acted as postmaster at the Cape River Diggings and in 1870 settled in Townsville, working for Clifton and Aplin and operating a small stationery business.

In 1882 he imported a printing press and bookbinding equipment to expand his stationery business and opened the Excelsior Printery in one of three new brick shops next to the Exchange Hotel.

In the following year a building was constructed for him by Waagepetersen and Bevan and the first trial telephone call in Townsville was made from the Exchange to Willmett's printery in March 1883.

[1] On 15 October 1885 he received a severe setback when the shop was destroyed by fire, though the printery at the rear survived and he still managed to get Willmett's North Queensland Almanac published by the end of the year.

It was more than a printery as they imported and sold paper, produced account books, sheet music and all kinds of stationery and art materials.

[1] In 1927, the machine room in the printery was extended to accommodate new machinery and an additional storey to this section was added as bulk storage space.

[1] Willmett's moved to South Townsville in 1975 and in October 1980 the firm was purchased by North Queensland Newspaper Company of which it became a wholly owned subsidiary.

[1] The building is in two parts with the block on Flinders Street having a rectangular plan form and is of three storeys constructed in brick with a symmetrical rendered facade.

The ground floor shopfront has been replaced in anodised aluminium but the original entrance to the upper levels, which has a single panelled timber door with side lights, survives to the right of this.

[1] Abutting and sitting higher than the front section of the building is a two and three storey wing constructed in brick with a cement rendered finish all around.

The style and quality of the former T.Willmett and Sons building demonstrates the prosperity of Townsville in the 1880s and reflects the way in which North Queensland was developed by the establishment of key ports as commercial and administrative centres.

The design, form and materials of the former Willmett's building make a major aesthetic contribution to the streetscape of Flinders Street.

The building is strongly associated with the life and work of Thankful Willmett, an important Townsville businessman and Mayor, and with other members of this prominent family.