[1] The settlement on Canal Creek (a tributary of the Condamine River) had grown from the 1840s to service the colonising settlers following the stock route blazed by the Leslie brothers in 1840 to the southern Darling Downs.

[1] By 1872 a state school, an Anglican church, Police Station and Court House, two smithies, three stores, a sawmill and the inevitable three hotels made up the straggling wooden town centre along the road to Warwick.

Most men were either employed as carriers on the Toowoomba-Goondiwindi road or else worked on nearby stations, rejoining their families at their Leyburn cottages on Saturday night.

[1] As one of the Darling Downs droving, drinking, and administrative centres located on the old stock and work-routes, significant government infrastructure was located in the town: from 1852 Leyburn became a postal distribution point for the district with mail services branching out from the town; in 1872 the town was connected to the electric telegraph system becoming an important repeating station between Sydney and Brisbane; in 1861 Leyburn was appointed as a place for the holding of Courts of Petty Sessions, a Police Magistrate was appointed, and a lock-up erected followed in 1867 by a court house; the Leyburn National School opened in 1862.

In the 1900s that too was destroyed with the building of the South Western railway line known as the Border Fence from Warwick to Goondiwindi (later extended to Dirranbandi).

Built of 12" pit-sawn timber with shingled roof, the contractor was John Baillie, the church of St Augustine of Canterbury was dedicated in September 1871 by Bishop Tufnell.

He designed relatively few houses, but residences such as East Talgai (1868) and Jimbour (1873-4) homesteads are some of the most substantial and distinguished ever erected in Queensland.

To enable the priest (who now travelled from Pittsworth) to stay overnight in Leyburn, a vestry was added to the church in 1918; the timber being supplied by Mr McDonald.

More recently a memorial erected by the local historical society in the grounds of the church to gold miner Dan Bray (died 1901) as a tribute to all the goldminers of Leyburn's' early history who lie in unmarked graves in unknown places.

Leyburn is a rural village on the southern reaches of the Darling Downs, some 50 kilometres (31 mi) northwest of Warwick, on the banks of Canal Creek.

Entrance to the site is through a timber arched gateway with a small pine tree and a short bay of picket fencing to either side.

To the east of the site is a small weatherboard store, and a memorial to the gold miner Dan Bray under an open shelter also roofed in shingles.

The wall framing of studs, noggings and bracing is exposed to the exterior of the building, and purposefully arranged as a decorative element which is further emphasised by its contrasting colour.

Inside, the nave has a special quality of light created by a continuous opening between the top of the walls and the roof framing, to the sides and the gable ends.

[1] Together with other buildings of the nineteenth century particularly of the 1860s and 1870s, St Augustine's is a symbol of the more prosperous times of Leyburn and an integral part of its townscape which presents a remarkably intact example of an early Queensland township as well as an important representation of the settlement of the Darling Downs.

Although reputedly patterned on the form of English village churches, the expression of the timber work and the simplified Gothic motifs give St Augustine's a delicate lightweight vernacular charm; there is a special quality of the internal light through the eaves and translucent windows.

Together with other buildings of the nineteenth century particularly of the 1860s and 1870s, St Augustine's is a symbol of the more prosperous times of Leyburn and an integral part of its townscape which presents a remarkably intact example of an early Queensland township as well as an important representation of the settlement of the Darling Downs[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.