The predominantly marble memorial honours the 310 local men who served in the First World War, including the 40 fallen.

The town of Charleville was gazetted in 1868 and laid out by government surveyor William Alcock Tully in the usual grid form, allowing for the roads to be wide enough for large bullock trains to turn in.

Other businesses were established to support the growing infrastructure; however, the pastoral properties continued to be the town's main asset.

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] George Brockwell Gill was born in England and emigrated to Australia in 1886 and was soon employed by Ipswich architect Samuel Shenton.

[1] The memorial itself is surrounded by a cast iron picket fence with fleur-de-lis finials and a centrally placed gate.

The pillar is of Italian marble and bears leaded names of those who served in the First World War, including the fallen, for whom the front panel is reserved.

At the top of each face are carved shields bearing the stylised letters AIF (Australian Imperial Forces).

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.

[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.

It also has special association with architect George Brockwell Gill, and with monumental masonry firm R Ziegler and Sons as an example of their work.