[1] The gold rush of the early 1870s which attracted miners and speculators to the Palmer River goldfield provided the impetus for the permanent settlement of Cooktown, becoming a municipality in 1876.

Cooktown developed rapidly in the mid-1880s and the substantial nature of the buildings in Charlotte Street indicated the town's importance as a port and business centre.

The Queensland National Bank commenced business in Cooktown in 1874 and built a small timber premises adjacent to the current site.

It has a rendered street facade, with a substantial colonnade to the ground floor, a more delicately detailed upper storey, and a central entrance portico.

Windows and doors to the ground floor street facade are arched, linked with string courses, and decorated with keystones.

Timber work includes finely carved and turned stairs, and panelled cedar doors with ventilated fanlights.

The public banking area contains a particularly impressive richly carved counter inset with ventilation grilles.

[2] The former Westpac Bank Building in Cooktown was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 11 March 1994 having satisfied the following criteria.

The Westpac Bank at Cooktown, completed in 1891, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of North Queensland, and the development of Cooktown as a port and business centre to service the important Palmer River goldfields.

[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.