The development of scientific methods of agricultural production appropriate to Queensland was of both public and political concern and calls for a college and experimental farm continued to be made in the Parliament for the next two decades.

It was also seen as a means to attract more people to settle and cultivate the land and it was proposed that several colleges were required to investigate agricultural methods for the various regions and climatic conditions in Queensland.

[1] The Australian-wide economic depression of the early 1890s frustrated attempts to utilise the £5000 allocated by the Queensland Parliament in 1891 to the founding of a college, and it was not until 1895 that the first 600 acres of land were purchased by Peter McLean, Under-Secretary of Agriculture.

As well as providing a basic practical and theoretical agricultural education for young men, the college also offered short courses for farmers on specific topics such as cheese making, milk testing, bee-keeping and sugar farming.

The avenue of Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis) which extends along each side of the original roadway from the Warrego Highway and through the heart of the campus to the Foundation Building was planted in 1927.

Also in 1935 a flagpole, presented by the Bundaberg Branch of the "Old Boys" Association, was erected in front of the Foundation Building, between the two Canary Island Date Palms planted in 1915.

College wartime work included the testing of alternative fuels and growing crops of opium poppy, urgently needed during war for the production of morphine.

In 1944 the two most northerly wings of the building were removed prior to the Americans leaving the College, and from 1945 the remaining section was utilised as a residence and later a girls' change room before being converted into a small chapel in 1959.

[1] A number of more permanent facilities were also constructed during the period of military occupation, including a Sewerage Treatment Works and a Pump House on the northern side of the Warrego Highway.

Twenty buildings erected on campus during the war were acquired form the Commonwealth Disposals Commission including 8 former military hospital wards, which remained in use as dormitories to accommodate a postwar influx of students and staff.

The morgue and the remnants of a rubbish dump established by the US Army about 50 metres (160 ft) southeast of the present piggery are the only surviving features associated with the American occupation of the campus.

A cairn and plaque commemorating the use of the College by the United States Army 105th General Base Hospital between 1942 and 1944 was erected opposite the main dining hall and unveiled in 1968.

Site excavation was carried out in 1950-52, largely by student labour using farm machinery such as tractors and ploughs, but the post-war shortage of materials delayed construction until 1953-54.

In 1966 a wide diversification of courses was initiated under the guidance of the newly formed Queensland Agricultural Education Advisory Board, including rural-related subjects such as food technology, hospitality, tourism, real estate valuation and wildlife services.

[1] The buildings, structures, plantings, spaces and landscape features of cultural heritage significance within the Gatton Campus which have been identified to date are scattered across the site.

Despite a massive building program from the 1960s onwards, and the re-orientation of the principal access road from the Lawes Railway Siding to the Warrego Highway, the Gatton Campus continues to demonstrate the principal site relationships established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: a core teaching/administrative/residential centre located on the sandstone ridge; farm training, workshop and service areas to the north of this; recreational facilities to the south; and the whole surrounded by farm paddocks.

[1] This precinct encompasses the bulk of the academic teaching facilities, most of which have been constructed since the 1960s, and is centred around the walkway linking the northern and southern ends of the Core area.

This walkway is of significance as evidence of the former central access road through the site, and is marked by an avenue of Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis) planted in 1927.

A staff recreation club is located on the western and northern side with an adjacent paved area enclosed with timber screens and pergola roof.

It is single storey, high-set on timber stumps, and has wide verandahs with dowel balusters on the southern, eastern and western sides of the building, and a service wing to the north.

[1] Sir Leslie Wilson Hall (1899 with 1935 extension) (Bldg 8129) is a large timber weatherboard building with a hipped, steel-trussed roof and a number of small, lean-to annexes.

[1] The two small buildings to the west of Sir Leslie Wilson Hall (Bldgs 8128, 8130) are both timber framed, weatherboard clad, and high-set on concrete stumps.

The whole is approximately 20 metres (66 ft) in height, and being located on the highest ground on the campus amidst low-scale buildings, is a landmark, visible from the Warrego Highway approaches and from the Main Range at Toowoomba, 50 kilometres (31 mi) distant.

Farm Square Precinct also contains a number of mature trees which contribute significantly to the aesthetic value of the campus, including a row of tall Bangalow Palms at the southern end of Services Road.

It consists of a cast iron weighbridge set into the road and an adjacent small, timber-framed shed clad externally in fibrous cement sheeting.

It is a small, rectangular, hipped-roof building, timber-framed, and clad externally with weatherboards to sill height, with fibrous cement sheeting and timber cover strips above.

Verandahs on the north and south elevations have separate roofs to the core and are enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting to sill height and glass louvres above.

[1] The former Crowley Vale School (1916) (Bldg 8158) is a re-located building currently situated at the far northern end of the Farm Square Precinct, to the west of Services Road.

The Foundation Precinct, which includes the Foundation Building, the Homestead, Morrison Hall, Sir Walter Leslie Hall, the water tower, a flagpole, a sandstone memorial, and plantings of Canary Island Date Palms (Phoenix canariensus), has aesthetic significance derived from the combination of impressive timber vernacular architecture, intact in both form and material, and striking formal landscape qualities.

Views to and from the central core are valued, and the water tower is a landmark, visible from the Warrego Highway and from the Main Range at Toowoomba, 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the west.