[1] In May 1825 Lieutenant Henry Miller moved the Moreton Bay Settlement from the Redcliffe Peninsula to its present site on the northern bank of the Brisbane River.

The settlers faced hardship and privation and the paucity of resources combined with thick sub-tropical vegetation made settlement difficult.

Logan continued to seek alternative sites, establishing a number of outstations including Eagle Farm and Oxley Creek.

Probably the most famous person buried in the cemetery was the surveyor Granville William Chetwynd Stapylton who it was believed was killed by Aborigines near Mount Lindsay in May 1840.

[1] The first European burial ground in Queensland is located beneath unnamed open space bounded by and including Skew Street, Eagle Terrace and North Quay, Brisbane.

Although there is no surface evidence of the burial ground, the documented history and an understanding of the previous usage of the area, particularly a lack of major development, indicates potential for both human remains and archaeological artefacts to exist within the place.

None of the installed bollards delineating the open space area, vehicular access barriers or plantings and gardens are of archaeological importance or potential.

[1] The physical limits of service easements ARP165780, BRP165780, CRP165780 and DRP165780, which cross the middle of the open space area from near the intersection of North Quay and Skew Street northwest across Eagle Terrace to Quay Street, are excluded due to previous subsurface disturbance, notably in November 2009, which would have destroyed any surviving archaeological remains within the limits of those easements.

At least 220 convicts, soldiers, women and children are known to have been interred in the burial ground, accounting for most of the people who died in the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement between 1825 and 1843.

Human remains and associated material culture, including personal items, have potential to survive subsurface at the First Brisbane Burial Ground.

[9][10] The level of disturbance has been designated as "intact" given the minor nature of road and other activities undertaken, and the lack of any major building construction work at the site.

This combination of being designated "exceedingly rare" and "intact" leads to the categorisation of the site as having "Exceptional Research Potential" in the Brisbane City CBD Archaeological Plan.

[1] Archaeological investigations on the site have the potential to answer important research questions about Queensland's history relating to the importation of materials, decay processes, colonial burial practices, gender, class and denominational differences, differential treatment of officers, soldiers, convicts and civilians, and health, nutrition and causes of death in the early colony.