This building was built in the mid 1880s by James Burns and Robert Philp, a former premier of Queensland. The store was built during a period of pastoral expansion in the Gulf. Normanton had become the major port for the region and the construction of the Normanton-Croydon railway line boosted the company’s business.

The building is one of several in the town for the period of its growth and prosperity in the late 19th century.