O'Connell and his wife Eliza Emmaline came to Brisbane in 1860 after a six-year term as Government Resident at Port Curtis (now Gladstone).

[1] In February 1880, stock and station agent, James Hamilton Scott purchased the house on 6 acres 4 perches and soon after nominated Henry Vyvyan Hassell and Samuel McGregor as trustees for purposes unidentified.

[1] Trustees, Hassell and McGregor took out a mortgage for £1,500 from Richard Cruise in December 1882 and Scott appears in the Post Office Directories for 1883-4 as residing at Rosemount.

It is believed that the original stone house began to fail and Jones demolished and replaced it with the brick wing and porch to form one long residence.

[1] The property was lent to the military authorities for the term of World War I and was not formally acquired from the Jones' family until 1926 along with an additional 1-acre 1 rood 27 perches in the southwest corner.

[1][2] Construction on a second phase of buildings commenced in December 1918 and was substantially complete by the end of 1919 at which time the hospital complex comprised a total of 13 wards, five huts, a dining hall and kitchen, theatre block, two buildings for staff quarters, sisters quarters, administration block, massage block, stores, dispensary, curative metal workshop, curative boot repairing workshops, boiler house, mortuary, motor shed, oil shed, dental buildings, eight fire boxes and a gymnasium.

Patients were ideally situated in close proximity to a door or window without the distinct disadvantages of having no walls, particularly in winter months and with the opportunity of respite on open verandahs.

Each ward included a dormitory, two cubicles, a Sister's office, servery and an annexe sterilizer room and self-contained ablutions block at the southern end.

The ward buildings were stepped down the gentle east facing slope and were connected by a timber framed walkway with corrugated iron roof.

The Red Cross Buildings were altered as accommodation for the resident Medical Officer and pharmacist and a lavatory and bathroom were added.

To cope with the extra patients and resultant staff increase, additions were also made to the kitchen and boiler house, nurses quarters, orderlies and maids changing rooms and stores.

The Board was experiencing major problems with overcrowding and the Rosemount site was used to alleviate some of those difficulties and was used for a variety of purposes, principally the care of long term patients.

In 1951, over three acres on the banks of Breakfast Creek was sold to the Brisbane City Council and is presently open space used as parkland.

[1] In the late 1980s a new two storey masonry complex to accommodate the geriatric services divisions was erected to the west of the Rosemount residence and part of this building is now used as a day hospital.

This project necessitated the demolition of some the massage block, X-ray building, garage, male staff hut, workshop and stores.

[4] In 2015, the Rosemount complex remains part of the Royal Brisbane Hospital and fulfils a number of functions, mostly provided at the 1980s masonry building.

Rosemount Hospital occupies 2.422 hectare site on an east facing slope overlooking Breakfast Creek at Windsor.

To the west are the former Medical Officer's Quarters facing Lutwyche Road, a single storey timber-framed building elevated on concrete stumps with a hipped corrugated iron roof and walls clad in pine chamfer boards.

[1] Also located on Lutwyche Road is the former dental hut, a single storey timber-framed building clad in timber chamferboards with a terracotta tile gambrel roof and finials.

At the northern end of each of the wards an addition which may incorporate the frame of the early walkway has been lined externally with small timber chamferboards.

[1] Wards 6 and 7, constructed c. 1939, are single storey timber-framed buildings elevated on concrete stumps and beams with a fibro cement roof and walls lined in FAC board.

[1] The Matron's flat and household workers' quarters is a timber-framed building lined with tongue and grooved pine elevated on timber stumps.

Timber detailing throughout is substantial and elaborate and includes ceilings, architraves, skirtings, dados, dining room mantel piece and door and window joinery.

The posts, ripple iron ceiling and other details of the early verandah survive and have been clad with timber chamferboards and casement windows.

[1] The Operating Theatre is a single storey timber-framed building lined with vertical tongue and groove pine boards and six-light sash and frame windows.

[1] The former Recreation Hall is a single storey timber-framed building, lined with vertical tongue and groove pine boards and is elevated on concrete stumps with a corrugated iron gable roof.

[1] A highset single storey timber-framed building with corrugated iron roof in the north east corner of the site was formerly occupied by Indigenous Health.

Another highset single storey timber-framed building with corrugated iron roof lined in vertical tongue and groove boards with sash and frame windows was also removed to the south eastern corner of the site after 1966 and may have been relocated from somewhere within the hospital complex.

It demonstrates the development of facilities required to treat the extensive number of service personnel injured in World Wars I and II.

[1] It (former Rosemount residence) also demonstrates the type of residential development that occurred along the northern bank of Breakfast Creek from the 1860s and is important for its association with early European Settlers in this area.