Historian Lorna McDonald suggests that this was possibly an attempt to create a more centralised alternative to Brisbane as the capital of a potential northern colony, because unlike most Queensland ports, Gladstone was established prior to the expansion of pastoral settlement in the hinterland.

In April 1853 the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, announced the intention of establishing a township at Port Curtis, and in May that year surveyor Francis MacCabe was instructed to undertake a survey for the town of Gladstone.

The new colony therefore included all of the present-day Northern Territory and most of what later became Queensland, but with the exception of the Moreton Bay, Darling Downs, and Maranoa districts.

[1] Gladstone's objective in establishing the colony of North Australia was to provide a place of exile for expirees and reformed convicts from both Australian and British gaols.

On 28 November 1846 Queen Victoria revoked the colony of North Australia, but word did not reach New South Wales before an attempt was made early in 1847 to establish a settlement at Port Curtis.

Despite finding considerable colonial opposition to the resumption of convict transportation, Barney carried out his instructions and in November 1846 explored the North Australia coast and selected Port Curtis as a settlement site.

Barney and the first contingent of 87 officials and settlers left Sydney on the barque Lord Auckland on 30 December 1846 and arrived at Port Curtis on 25 January 1847, during the height of the wet season.

The principal township was laid out near Auckland Inlet, but MacCabe set aside a substantial area from Barney Point to south of what is now Friend Park, as a reserve for Public Quay, Custom House and Public Offices; and a large reserve for Government House, Domain and Gardens further to the southeast, adjacent to Waapentake Creek.

[1] On 1 January 1854 Captain Maurice Charles O'Connell, grandson of former New South Wales Governor Sir William Bligh, was appointed as Government Resident, Police Magistrate and Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Port Curtis and Leichhardt districts.

[1] The first sale of town lots at Gladstone was held in Sydney on 9 February 1854, and by the time O'Connell arrived at Port Curtis at the end of March 1854, the first slab buildings had been erected near Auckland Inlet.

O'Connell and his family and other officials set up residence in tents at Barney Point Beach, in the area proposed as public reserve and out of the way of commercial development closer to Auckland Inlet.

The O'Connells lived aboard ship for a month while a temporary government residence was being erected: a large marquee with a timber floor.

It is understood that this marquee was erected on the low promontory at the southern end of Barney Point Beach, in the area now known as Friend Park.

[1] On 16 April 1854 Governor Fitzroy arrived at Gladstone to inspect the fledgling settlement, and the following day officially installed O'Connell as Government Resident.

O'Connell's domain was laid out with gardens and fencing, but work on construction of a permanent residence in stone did not commence until 1855, and was not completed until late 1856.

[1] Amongst O'Connell's regular reports to Sydney was an account of the accidental death on 16 September 1854 of 22 year old Thomas Milles Stratford Riddell, eldest son of the acting NSW colonial secretary.

[1] O'Connell was reinstated as Government Resident in September 1858 to handle the rapid influx of population into the Port Curtis District following the discovery of gold at Canoona.

HH Brown was resident in the Port Curtis District by July 1858, when his son Alfred Henry was born, and was among a small party of Gladstone citizens who had prospected for gold at Canoona in mid-1858 and who were largely responsible for the rush of late 1858.

Following the death of Theresa Brown in December 1927, the site was acquired in 1929 from her family (who were resident in Sydney) by Gladstone businessmen and former alderman Henry Friend junior.

[1] During 1954 the highlight of the centenary celebrations was the unveiling by Gladstone's oldest inhabitant, Mrs Fanny Golding, of the cairn in Friend Park commemorating the installation of Captain Maurice O'Connell as Government Resident on 17 April 1854.

[1] In the mid-1950s Gladstone's Junior Chamber of Commerce (established in 1954) made the creation of a children's playground in Friend Park its principal project.

In the late 20th century a decision was made by the Gladstone City Council to remove the stone foundations and remnants of the 1856 government residence.

[1] On Sunday 22 June 2003 a memorial cairn to Francis MacCabe was unveiled in Friend Park by the Mayor of Gladstone Peter Corones.

[1] The foreshore is composed of principally alluvial muds from the Calliope River and various creek systems entering Port Curtis, deposited over Carboniferous sandstones and mudstones of the Wondilla Group.

[1] Above the slope the park comprises an open lawn with specimen trees, including a lone Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla), Ficus sp., palms, and Eucalyptus sp.

[1] While there are no above-ground relics associated with the use of the site as the Port Curtis Government Residence and Domain, there are likely to be sub-surface deposits of archaeological interest.

Although little above-ground evidence remains of the former use of the site as the Port Curtis Government Residence and Domain, the place is significant for its potential to reveal archaeological information which may assist in our understanding of Queensland's history.

This includes evidence of structures and graves on the site, as well as artefacts associated with daily life in the government domain of a remote, mid-19th century British colonial settlement.