The external boundary wall of the Toowoomba Men's Gaol was constructed using local stone and bricks on government land behind the courthouse in 1864.

While "The Swamp", as Toowoomba was first called, was surveyed as an agricultural area, it soon proved more suitable for urban living and underwent rapid growth.

The Colonial Architect designed a new courthouse that cost £2,018/6/4 in Margaret Street, the road linking Brisbane to Toowoomba.

This courthouse was low-set with a hip roof, rectangular in plan with a small entrance porch and had an internal U-shaped verandah.

[1] When Toowoomba became an assize town there was a need for a gaol to house criminals arrested on the Darling Downs, the Maranoa and Warrego awaiting trial and for those convicted.

This work cost £993 and included adding the clerestory to provide more natural lighting, partitioning parts of the verandah to make a section with hand basins, office and storage room, and building a small detached hospital.

[1] An article on the Toowoomba Reformatory published in the Darling Downs Gazette of 25 February 1889 described the building as verandahed and spacious.

The Victorian attitude required that these females work and the well appointed laundry with 7 or 8 big galvanised tanks was used by many local families for their washing and provided the institution with £12 to £13 a month.

Prominent men soon formed a committee and the inaugural Austral Festival, held in the town hall in November 1904, was a resounding success.

Albert Edward Harston, a music school proprietor, suggested purchasing the old gaol site for future festivals.

The Austral Finance Company employed architect William Hodgen to design a hall that could seat thousands and they utilised the former reformatory building as a museum.

[1] Early in 1916 Albert Edward Harston, an active and founding member of the Austral Association, purchased the site.

An advertisement in a booklet published by the Toowoomba Tourist Board in 1935 claimed it was a recently refurbished mansion that offered every home comfort, first-class cuisine, internal sanitation with hot and cold water, good garden and garage.

This non-denominational, non-political society for males 12 to 21 year olds fosters public speaking, leadership, competitive sporting activities, community involvement and family commitment.

Like Scouts and other youth organisations they hold annual conferences, however, a mothers group is an important aspect of the society and volunteer work such as raising funds for charities like the Blue Nurses and visiting the elderly is encouraged.

The Chronicle of 13 May 1983 reported that Toowoomba's DeMolay Chapter was in urgent need of funds for refurbishing their building, which had been in a run down state when purchased in 1960.

[1] According to a long time member of the organisation when DeMolay purchased Rutlands, the hall had a central passage with partitioned rooms off either side of it, these were removed.

Because the order is run as a self-supporting business they rent the hall to various local organisations to raise revenue for maintaining the building and financing activities.

[1] Long gone is the reformatory's 1882 detached kitchen with large laundry that was erected between the main building and gaol wall.

The core is rectangular in plan, and the English bond brick two-storey structure is capped by a hip roof with clerestory.

[1] The former Courthouse is set close to the mature camphor laurel lined Margaret Street and opposite Queens Park and adds to the streetscape of this important thoroughfare connecting Brisbane and Toowoomba.

The rock appears to be made up of ironstone nodules set firmly in a sedimentary matrix, it is a dark oxidised colour throughout.

[1] A block of townhouses have been constructed in Sterling Street, using the Old Toowoomba Gaol wall as part of the foundations of the site.

As does the Toowoomba residents wanting to develop cultural facilities who took the opportunity of the closure of the gaol in 1903 to acquire a large expanse of land to build a festival hall and open a museum.

Internal modifications to adapt the building for usage as a museum, boarding house and community hall have not detracted from its external appearance and reflect the evolution of structures over time.

The former Courthouse has aesthetic visual streetscape because of the mature camphor laurels, bluestone kerbs, Queens Park and many grand 19th century houses.