The monument has strong aesthetic and social significance and is part of a pattern of commemoration prevalent across Queensland and Australia after WWI.

When tin was discovered on the Wild River in 1880, the road from Port Douglas to Herberton was also preferred to the pack tracks from Cairns.

During the interwar period the economy of Far North Queensland boomed, thanks to an expanding and subsidised sugar industry, improved transport, and increased tourism.

[2] No previous or subsequent war has had such an impact on Australia in terms of loss of life; almost every community in every Australian state lost young people.

These memorials were a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief; substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East.

[7] Monumental masons Andrew Lang Petrie & Son, of Toowong, supplied more Queensland "digger" statues than any other firm, while Melrose & Fenwick, of Townsville, with branches in Charters Towers, Mackay and Cairns, held a virtual monopoly over the north.

The remainder stand in an attitude of mourning – "Rest on arms reverse" – while only one, the Atherton War Memorial, adopts an aggressive stance.

[11] In early 1919 fundraising began for rest homes for returned men across Queensland, with the proceeds to be divided amongst eight districts, including Cairns.

[12] Later that year the Mayor of Cairns, RCF Gelling, discussed possible memorial forms (soldier statue, trees, pavilion or kiosk, honour boards, or a hospital ward) and locations (an intersection, Norman Park, the Esplanade, or ANZAC Park) with the Cairns sub-branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA).

The option of a tea room kiosk, including stone panels with names of the dead and a "digger" statue on the roof, was suggested by the Cairns Fathers' Association with the approval of the RSL.

The utilitarians believed that their approach was more enlightened and humane, and utility also appealed to local governments, as donations could offset the cost of needed infrastructure.

[1][19] In November 1923 the Cairns Post reported "certain sections have advocated something of a purely monumental nature, others have been equally keen in urging the erection of something which will be of public service, such as a hall or similar building, suitably ornamented with the names of the fallen".

[1] However, the opinion of monumentalists was expressed by WM Carleton Brush, who stated that "to collect money for a memorial for our fallen, and spend it for the benefit of the living, is shameful".

[1][21] After wrangling within the War Memorial Committee in early 1924, when Mayor Hoare and the women subscribers squared off against those men in favour of the kiosk,[22] a more modest form of utilitarian monument was decided on at a public meeting of subscribers in July 1924: a public clock, with striker, on a column (the final form was an obelisk rather than a column).

Cairns did not have a town clock, and it was recognised that the city could not afford a kiosk; opinion now favoured "some object combining beauty and utility with convenient and suitable form".

[27] It was anticipated that the memorial, of blue granite and freestone, would be unveiled on ANZAC Day 1925, but delays occurred over the design of the clock to surmount the obelisk, and no tenders were received until mid-1925.

[1][29] Unveiled by Mayor Draper (who preferred a clock to a non-practical memorial) in front of a crowd of 3000 citizens, the monument was reported as being 41 feet (12 m) high and composed of granite, freestone and marble.

The final cost of the monument and clock, £2074, was met by last minute fundraising by Scouts and Girl Guides, plus an anonymous donation of £66, allowing it to be unveiled debt-free.

[1][32] WWI monument sites were usually chosen to be prominent and accessible, such as parks or major intersections, or were outside schools, town halls, and post offices.

The Cairns monument stood at the intersection of Shields and Abbott Street until it was moved in 1972 to its current location between the Esplanade and the ocean, opposite the RSL, which has occupied its site (initially as a rest home) since c.1919.

[1] The Cairns War Memorial, facing Trinity Bay to the north-east, is located in a park reserve on the Esplanade near the junction with Florence Street.

The WWI monument is located opposite the Cairns RSL at the corner of Florence Street, and is clearly visible from both the road and a walkway along the foreshore.

The view from the road, with the WWI monument, a symbol of great sacrifice, juxtaposed against a tranquil, palm-lined setting overlooking the ocean, is particularly evocative.

The sandstone pedestal has a recessed block, with leaded marble plates mounted on each face, flanked by red polished granite corner columns.

[1] To the north-west of the 1940 field gun is a small concrete cairn with metal plaques honouring M and Z Special Units of WWII.

There is also a metal plaque, set onto a concrete block, dedicated to the 31/51 Australian Infantry battalion (2 AIF), between the WWI monument and the ocean.

It uses high quality materials and design in a formal composition with strong symbolic meaning, and has had memorials to later conflicts added nearby.

As a focal point for remembrance ceremonies, the Cairns War Memorial is highly valued by the community for its spiritual, symbolic, cultural and social associations.

The WWI monument has a long, special and enduring connection with the people of Cairns and surrounding district, while more recently placed memorials have added new layers of meaning.