This timber building was constructed on the police reserve adjacent to the waterfront at Port Douglas in 1879.It is identified as the second oldest surviving timber court house to be commissioned by the Queensland Government. The design typifies the simple architecture which was applied, not only to regional court houses, but to other public use buildings as well."Official police use ceased in 1957 and it was unoccupied by 1961.  In 1963 the Department of Works considered the expense of repair uneconomical and the disposal of this building forced its removal from the police reserve. It is due to a large measure of community self-help combined with a large stroke of luck that this building remains in existence, echoing Mrs. Betty Whiting and husband Albert's remarks when purchasing the building from the State Government in 1968 … 'So there is nothing for it but to roll up our sleeves and do the job ourselves.'The Douglas Shire Council and the Port Douglas Restoration Society took on the mantle of trusteeship and responsibility for the project after a Queensland Government decision to excise the original site from the police reserve in May of 1993.In October of 1993 the project scope was extended to include sensitive end use of the court house by allowing the Douglas Shire Historical Society to create a local history museum."In mid-1993 the building was returned to its original as-built site and after undergoing restoration was opened on 5 April 1997 by the newly formed Douglas Shire Historical Society as a museum."

Today the murder trial of the only woman to be officially hanged in Queensland is featured in the same room where the case first came before a court.  Police and supreme court hearings which led to execution by hanging for Ellen Thomson are now revisited through audio-visual and graphic displays produced by the Douglas Shire Historical Society.  The case, which was highly controversial last century remains so to this day.