[1] The Gona Barracks site was established just prior to World War I in the 1910s, for the purpose of military training for specialist units of compulsory militia forces.

West of Victoria Park, the largest of the government reserves, the area now known as Kelvin Grove was cleared, and subdivided and offered for sale by the 1860s.

[1] In May 1911, the Commonwealth Government acquired the Brisbane Grammar School endowment, and renamed the site the Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve.

An external report completed in 1909 suggested the volunteer militia forces needed to be increased to number 80,000 soldiers and led to the establishment of the Army's Royal Military College at Duntroon in 1911.

The bulk of the Army's officers and troops were to serve on a part-time basis in the Australian Military Forces (AMF or militia), attending training one night per week and participating in some weekend camps and an annual encampment.

A Belgian 5.9-inch (150 mm) gun, captured from the Germans at Pozières in France during World War I by the 9th Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment, was mounted on the grass outside the building.

The three bedroom timber house was constructed along Sylvan Road by builders NT Stansfield and Thomas Foster at a quoted price of £1500.

One was a garage and workshops building for servicing AASC vehicles, made necessary by the Army's process of converting from horse transport to motorised.

[1] Besides the permanent additions to the barracks site, a number of temporary structures were added to accommodate some of the troops mobilised for the war effort.

The buildings were likely to have been standard prefabricated structures of the World War II period, consisting of timber and masonite with fibro sheeting.

A sloping dirt road connected the upper and lower barracks areas at this time, as did a long line of steep steps.

The parade ground area at the upper barracks site was made level by the US Army, whose alterations created the sunken road that runs past the relocated Toowong drill hall.

[1] The Second World War ended in August 1945, and in the months that followed, Kelvin Grove Military Reserve saw the demobilisation of returning soldiers, and the disposal of surplus stores.

In 1947, 48 buildings consisting mainly of the RAE Maintenance Company and Signals Camps in the Lower Barracks area, were designated as surplus to Army requirements and sold.

Twenty-one World War II era buildings were relocated to the lower barracks area from the Wacol Army Camp, and a weatherboard assembly hall was built for both the Engineers and Signals.

In 1966 the parade ground area was resealed in order to install two helicopter landing pads, while by the 1980s, a new steel demountable lecture room was constructed where the former riding school once stood.

The building is a long single-storey timber structure, set on a concrete base, with a gabled roof sheeted in corrugated steel.

It is a small single-storey building constructed of a timber frame with part-height corrugated iron sheeting roughly applied, and steel mesh to the upper portions with an earth floor.

[1] The 1915 Artillery drill hall is positioned at right angles to the number 2 gun park shed, on a north-east – south-west axis, near the western boundary of the site.

[1] The neighbouring circa World War II toilet block is a small single-storey structure, clad in weatherboards on a concrete base, with a skillion roof sheeted in corrugated steel.

[1] Internally, full-height partitions divide the central space, creating individual offices, while the lower floor features messes.

The most substantial structure in this area is a c. 1980s single-storey building set on a concrete base covered with steel sheeting, comprising seven bays with roller shutters.

[1] To the rear of the AASC drill hall, on the south-western corner of the building, is a timber toilet block set on a concrete base, with a skillion roof sheeted with corrugated iron.

[1] Located adjacent to the memorial hall is a concrete slab which originally supported a post World War II petrol, oil and lubricant store.

It is a small timber-framed building sheeted with corrugated iron, and has a simple gable roof with a skillion attached and sits on a concrete base.

*[1] A small metal-clad storage shed built on a concrete base is located to the west of the drill hall, along the property boundary on Kelvin Grove Road.

[1] The 1941-42 garage and workshop building is sited adjacent to the Infantry drill hall, along the western elevation of the central parade area.

The buildings constructed for the artillery, service corps and engineers demonstrate in their form and room layouts the important role played by horses in military activity at that time, which was later supersede by motorised transportation.

Gona Barracks is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places, as the layout of the World War I buildings illustrate the military use of the site.

As a military training ground since the early years of World War I until 1998, thousands of servicemen and women have an association with the site which has played an active role during the major periods of defence organisation in this country.