The rest house was designed by Warwick architects Dornbush and Connolly and built by local contractors NJ Thompson and Sons; inside were seats and on the walls, five rolls of honour, one of which was reserved for the fallen.

The Soldiers' Memorial was officially opened on 6 February 1926 by Major General Sir William Glasgow, a commander of campaigns in Gallipoli and also in France, whose battlefields were to be memorialised in Australia by the naming of the towns of the soldier settlement area (Amiens, Pozieres, Bullecourt, and Fleurbaix) established near Stanthorpe soon after the War.

[3] The first meeting to consider the erection of an honour board or soldiers memorial in Stanthorpe was held on 1 December 1918; a committee was formed to raise funds.

The committee considered a possible site at Mt Marlay, the major lookout point for the town, however this was later rejected and by 1921, suggestions were being sought for other suitable schemes.

Mr Fletcher favoured erecting a memorial on the proposed new cricket grounds; Mr Corden favoured a block of land owned by ER Hopper situated close to town and on a high position on Foxton's Hill which could be bought at a reasonable price; CF White suggested a rest house on the Hopper land and also using the land as a memorial park by erecting seats in convenient spots for the public.

[4] In 1923, the memorial site was formally acquired by the Committee, being held in the names of Charles Frederick White, James Vincent Scully, and Harry Wright.

In September of that year, Dornbusch and Connolly were asked to prepare specifications in both local stone and concrete and tenders were to be called.

[3] Until 1963, when the memorial was transferred to the Stanthorpe Shire Council, it was maintained by public donations, including those collected for its upkeep at the annual Anzac Day Service.

The site is bounded to the north by Lock Street and on the remaining sides by residential allotments including "El Arish" along part of the western boundary.

Landscaping is in a naturalistic manner with bush pathways (and some sets of concrete stairs), seats cut out of the rock along some paths, and stone walling and terracing.

[3] From Lock Street, the rest house is approached by several sets of concrete stairs on a path leading up the hill from the road.

On the walls are five World War I honour boards of metal set into concrete mouldings, one of which is reserved for the names of the dead.

With its memorial plantings and naturalistic landscaping including rock seats and walls and bush paths leading up the hill to the rest house, positioned so as to view the rising and the setting of the sun through its archways, the memorial is clearly intended as a place of both commemoration and contemplation.

The site, with its rough terrain and exposed granite boulders common to the region retains its wilderness quality as a stark landscape which is both peculiarly local, but also on a grander scale, making apparent symbolic reference to Gallipoli and the Turkish coast.

[3] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.