The fire station and its related structures are sited on 1.2 acres of land on the Redcliffe Peninsula, almost midway along Oxley Avenue between Woody Point and Scarborough.

[1] For many years the Redcliffe area was known as "Humpybong", the name that the local Aboriginal people gave to the abandoned convict settlement (1824-1825) at Red Cliff Point.

In 1861 23,000 acres of the peninsula and the Petrie area were declared an agricultural reserve, and from 1862 onwards a number of farm portions were sold.

The 1880s land speculation boom in Brisbane extended to the Redcliffe Peninsula, and the area's identity as a seaside resort solidified in that decade.

In the Victorian era people considered "taking the air" by the sea to be healthy, and agricultural portions on the peninsula were subdivided and sold as residential estates, for the building of "Marine Residences".

A Police Station, Courthouse, and Post Office were built in 1885, and the Redcliffe Divisional Board was created in 1888.

In 1921, when the Town of Redcliffe was declared, its permanent population was only 1,631, and it contained 432 private dwellings, six Hotels, and 28 boarding houses.

The opening of the Hornibrook Highway Toll Bridge ended Redcliffe's isolation, and led to a burst of residential development.

Wartime and post- war building restrictions hampered development until the 1950s, especially in areas viewed as tourist resorts.

[1] In the late 1930s the Redcliffe Town Council's confidence in the future led to a rush to develop public infrastructure.

Initial equipment consisted of a Ford Truck, several hundred feet of hose, two hydrants, two branches and one "Y" coupling.

Mayer, who had started as a volunteer fire fighter in Windsor in 1911, died of an illness in June 1945, and was replaced by P.F.

[1] To help place developments in Redcliffe within the context of fire fighting in Queensland, it is useful to note events and building trends in nearby Brisbane.

Smith owned the Renown Theatre in Margate (built 1940), and worked on a number of building projects for the military during World War Two.

Frank Nicklin, the leader of the opposition, opened the Redcliffe Fire Station, built at a cost of £11,000, on 1 November 1949.

There was a watchtower on the original plans, sited above the laundry near the southwest corner of the building, but if this was built it no longer remains.

[2] The two-storey fire station faces east towards Oxley Avenue, with two square towers flanking its two central roller doors.

A large V-shaped metal billboard stands just to the south of the station building, on the Oxley Avenue frontage.

The single-gabled timber garage has four windows on each of its north and south sides, and a loft door above its main entrance faces the rear of the brick fire station.

[1] Redcliffe Fire Station was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 September 2005 having satisfied the following criteria.

It is also evidence of the rapid transformation of Redcliffe from a holiday destination to a residential centre after the construction of the Hornibrook Bridge.

The Redcliffe Fire Station's interior layout demonstrates the principal characteristics of a fire station of the period, which include: accommodation on the first floor for the Chief Officer; a central appliance garage on the ground floor, flanked by a dormitory, recreation room, watch room, showers, toilet, laundry and kitchen; a hose drying tower; an outdoor rear area for vehicle maintenance and cleaning; and close access to a main street.

This ground floor plan is substantially intact, and resembles that of the two-storey timber fire stations built in Brisbane in the 1930s.