The southeastern building of this pair of single-storeyed timber buildings was erected for William Jack, storekeeper, of Herberton. It was the first in a chain of general stores erected by
William Jack and
John Newell in
North Queensland during the last two decades of the 19th century. The northwestern building was erected by 1895. Herberton owes its existence to the April 1880 discovery of a substantial tin reef in the vicinity, by experienced miners and prospectors William Jack, John Newell, Thomas Brandon and John Brown. In partnership, Jack, Newell, Brandon and William Joss (who had bought out Brown) secured about of freehold near the present town, and named their claim the Great Northern. A rush followed almost immediately, and by August 1880, when Warden Mowbray laid out the town of Herberton (so named by Jack and his partners because of its proximity to the Wild River, the head of the
Herbert River), it already contained an hotel, a butcher's shop, and three stores, one of which was William Jack's. The tin fields around Herberton and the other towns which sprang up in the district in the early 1880s, proved to be the richest discovered on the Australian mainland. At an early date, Jack sold his share in the Great Northern to merchant and mining entrepreneur John Moffatt, and set up Herberton's first store, in a small bark hut. Jack probably did not erect the more substantial premises of pit-sawn cedar
chamfers until after he purchased the store site in October 1881. John Newell joined William Jack as managing partner in Jack & Newell, General Merchants and Forwarding and Shipping Agents, in 1882, and in 1885 married Jack's daughter, Janet. As new mineral fields were discovered, Jack & Newell subsequently established a chain of 26 stores on the
Atherton Tableland, and were frequently the financial mainstay of these early settlements. The company had its own form of paper currency, recognised by all banks and firms throughout North Queensland, and by the late 1890s was the largest merchant house north of
Townsville. William Jack died in 1910, but the business name of Jack & Newell was retained. John Newell maintained a lifelong association with mining interests in North Queensland, and was an active participant in civic affairs. He became a justice of the peace in 1884, was a member of the
Herberton and
Tinaroo Shire Councils, and served as
mayor of Herberton in 1888–89. From 1896 until 1902 he was the Member of the
Queensland Legislative Assembly for
Woothakata; from its inception in 1906 until 1921, he was a member of the
Cairns Harbour Board; and was vice-president of the short-lived
Cairns Stock Exchange of 1906–12. Newell died in 1932, but several stores in the Jack & Newell chain survived into the 1970s. The store at Herberton remained the firm's headquarters until about 1960, and finally closed in late 1977. == Description ==