The Millaquin refinery and private milling companies invested in the area and by 1920 the city had become directly and indirectly dependent on the sugar industry.

[1] The base and column were created in Sydney, which may explain the use of trachyte, a material more commonly used for memorials in New South Wales than in Queensland.

The word "cenotaph", commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means "empty tomb".

Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war.

[1] Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste.

[1] Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.

It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, embodying the Anzac spirit and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian: loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity.

The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials.

[1] The First World War Memorial is situated at the main intersection of Bundaberg on a traffic island consisting of alternating bands of grass and concrete running parallel to Bourbong Street.

[1] At 38 feet (12 m) high, the memorial is of a massive scale and comprises a pedestal surmounted by a column and a digger statue.

The central pillar sits on a simply detailed trachyte base and is flanked by sections of banded stone.

War memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state.

As a digger statue it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland[1] The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

It is of aesthetic significance for its high degree of workmanship, materials and design, creating a dominant landmark within the streetscape.

It has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and also with Bundaberg architect, F H Faircloth.

[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.