Barnes and Co. Trading Place

Barnes and Co. Trading Place is a two-story brick building at 118 Palmerin Street featuring large plate glass shopfronts and ornamental plaster details. The structure extends across multiple addresses along Palmerin Street and King Street, preserving its traditional Victorian commercial architecture from 1911.

George Powell Barnes established this trading company in 1874 as a small store, expanding it into a major regional retail business by the early 1900s. The building itself was constructed in 1911 at the peak of this growth, reflecting the wealth the enterprise had achieved.

This department store changed how rural Queensland communities shopped, bringing a variety of products together in one location for farmers and residents. Visitors can still see how the space was designed to serve the daily needs of the surrounding area.

The building is visible from the street and retains its original architectural elements, including the Wunderlich ceiling and timber fixtures throughout. Visitors can walk along both street frontages to observe the shopfront details and see how the interior spaces were organized for retail operations.

The building once incorporated an advanced pneumatic cash railway system that connected selling points to a central cash office through a network of tubes. This mechanical system was a sign of modern retail technology for its era.