Originally sited near the eastern boundary of a railway reserve to the west of Main Street, in the late 1990s the marble pillar on its freestone plinth was moved about 30 metres (98 ft) westwards to its current position, where it was mounted on a modern granite platform, set amongst the paths, grass and trees of Freedom Park.

As a focus for ANZAC Day ceremonies it is highly valued by the Hervey Bay community for its spiritual, symbolic, cultural and social associations.

European settlement at Hervey Bay began with the establishment of the pastoral run Dalgaroom (16,000 acres (6,500 ha)) in the mid-1850s, and timber-getting commenced in the district in the mid-1860s.

Dalgaroom run was reduced to 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) and renamed Toogoom, which was later resumed and surveyed as farming portions from 1870.

These memorials were a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief; substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East.

[8] In late 1918 Councillor W Whitaker and Albert Whitford, Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, asked the Commissioner for Railways for a suitable site for a memorial "for fallen soldiers", and a site was granted in Station Square, an open area between the Pialba railway station building and Main Street, by August 1918.

[19] The base of the marble pillar was inscribed with the words "This stone was erected by the citizens of Pialba and District in honour of the men who served and fell in the great war, 1914-1918", while the panel with the names of the fallen (on the same face of the monument) was headed "In memory of the men who paid the supreme sacrifice in the great war, 1914-1918".

The names of future wars would later adorn the base of the four sides of the marble pillar: WWII, Korea, Malaya and Borneo, and Vietnam.

Mr Huxley Taylor, who had lost two sons at the front, performed the unveiling ceremony, and a German machine gun was also presented to Pialba as a war trophy.

[22][23] The station master's house faced the sea at the north end of the yard (now the northwest corner of Freedom Park) until its removal c.1999.

A hollow metal world globe with laurel leaves at its base, designed and built by George Pujol, was added to the top of the marble pillar at this time.

The open park setting contains level grassed areas, mature shade trees, and various modern landscaping features and memorial structures.

The memorial consists of a decorative white marble pedestal on a light-brown freestone base, centred on a stepped, dark granite platform.

[1] The squat stone base is square in plan, with rock-faced sides and a dressed top with bevelled edges.

The east face of the shaft bears the inscription:[1]"THIS STONE WAS ERECTED BY THE CITIZENS OF PIALBA & DISTRICT IN HONOUR OF THE MEN WHO SERVED AND FELL IN THE GREAT WAR.

The cenotaph, which includes panels bearing the names of those who served and those that fell, represents the empty grave of those from the district who did not return.

The Pialba Memorial Cenotaph, funded by public subscription, has a strong and special association with the people of Hervey Bay.

As a focus for ANZAC Day ceremonies the cenotaph is highly valued by the community for its spiritual, symbolic, cultural and social associations.