[1] The Innisfail Water Tower was built during 1933 and 1934 and was part of a significant infrastructure project in one of Queensland's most important sugar-growing regions.

[1] In the early 1930s Innisfail was the principal town in the Johnstone Shire and an important regional service centre in one of its major sugar-producing districts.

Thomas Henry Fitzgerald is credited with the town's establishment, attracted to the area because of its potential for growing sugar.

With financial backing from Brisbane, he selected his Innisfail Estate in June 1880 along the Johnstone River where the present town is located.

Lodges and societies were established, as were businesses including an aerated water factory, two bakers, a butcher and three new hotels.

[1] While the sugar industry was fuelling the growth of the area, the greatest impact on Innisfail's landscape came from the major floods and cyclones of the period.

A large proportion of the rebuilding which took place during the 1920s and 1930s - a period of prosperity - was done using reinforced concrete to prevent such levels of destruction during future cyclonic events.

Councillor Clarence Stanley Kopsen Page, Chairman of the Johnstone Shire Council and Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce at the time, was a strong advocate for the scheme, which he argued would allow the formation of a fire brigade, improve public health, allow drains and streets to be flushed as well as providing water for households and public gardens.

The local newspaper, the Johnstone River Advocate, reported in August of that year that a prolonged dry spell had resulted in motor traffic causing "... miniature desert storms on the dusty roads".

[1] Council's new funding application for a water supply scheme resulted in the Queensland Treasurer approving a subsidy of £15,500 plus a loan of £30,750.

These alternative schemes were based on the opinion of a former shire engineer and some people within the community who thought savings could be made by tapping into natural springs rather than pumping from the North Johnstone River, thereby reducing the size of some of the piping.

In June 1933 the Van Leeuwen Bros were awarded the contract with a tender of £5186/16/-, having arrived in Innisfail from Baarn in the Netherlands in 1918.

Advertising and a town clock were suggested; however the Shire Council decided on a lookout, the guard rail for which was erected shortly after the dome on the tank was completed.

Surrounded by palm trees and a low masonry fence with iron railing, the reinforced concrete structure comprises a circular tank supported on a central cylindrical tower and eight rectangular section columns.

The columns are accentuated at the springing line of the splays with two rows of rectangular moulding forming decorative capitals and with plinths at their base.

The current paint scheme distinguishes various components of the exterior using pale yellow as a base colour detailed with a teal blue, terracotta orange and red.

Within the central tower, a half-turn stair with equal flights, constructed of concrete with a tubular metal handrail and balustrade, provides access to the tank.

[1] The balustrade around the edge of the tank top is made of tubular metal and currently supports aerials for local telecommunications companies.

A frame of similar materials covers a central circular opening where a ladder from below provides access to the dome.

Through the unemployment relief schemes, a conscious effort was made to produce concrete structures of pleasing appearance and the Innisfail Water Tower well illustrates the design elements, reflecting interwar Modernist concerns with functional simplicity, believed to impart this value.