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 impetus for a war nurses memorial was initiated by the West Bundaberg Progress Association who approached the City Council and requested that the parcel of land be made available to them for beautification purposes.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by a large crowd of civilians and fifty nurses in white uniforms formed a guard of honour.

Many people were thanked at the unveiling, including architect E H Boden who also formally opened the steel entrance gate to the park.

These included architect E H Boden, local monumental mason Zero Ziegler, who donated the marble honour roll and Mr Cunnington, the Bundaberg City Gardens Curator, who supervised the layout and planting of the park.

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.

[1] The Memorial Pavilion is situated in a triangular shaped park planted with palm trees opposite the Bundaberg Base Hospital.

[1] Bundaberg War Nurses Memorial was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.

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.

The memorial and its setting are significant for their contribution to the aesthetic qualities of the townscape and creates a conspicuous landmark at the junction of two major streets.