The property was established by Edward Turner in 1875, and used to grow sugar from the early 1880s, in which work South Sea Islanders were employed until the turn of the century.

Remnants of the sugar plantation era include two weeping fig trees (Ficus benjamina), an area of 29 burials in three rows, as well as a dry-rubble wall along Windermere Road.

Initially the wall extended almost the full road frontage of Portion 85, but it has been reduced to about half this length (201 metres (659 ft)).

Turner fulfilled the conditions of his selection under the Crown Lands Alienation Act 1868 and in 1881 he applied to purchase the property, and a deed of grant was issued.

By March 1868, 2107 Islanders had been brought to Queensland, employed in various capacities including agricultural and pastoral work, and as servants in the towns.

Islanders could only be employed in tropical or semi-tropical agriculture, including the cultivation of sugar cane, cotton, tea, coffee, rice and spices.

[29] Juice mills were commonplace in the area with 24 established between 1882 and 1884,[30] including at Ashgrove, Avoca, Fairymead, Glenmorris, Grange, Kepnock, Mabbro, Summerville, Windermere, and Woodbine by October 1883.

In order to ensure the viability of the juice mill,[31] Turner acquired another parcel of land on the southern slopes of The Hummock (Portion 87) in October 1888.

[1][34] The type of work undertaken by the South Sea Islanders on the property and their conditions were summarised by the eldest son Herbert Turner in his 1955 publication: "Rural Life in Sunny Queensland".

About 6 examples of it remain in the Bundaberg district, including one associated with the former Mon Repos sugar plantation and entered in the Queensland Heritage Register (the South Sea Islander Wall).

Again in 1880 a high mortality rate led to a medical investigation which blamed poor food, long working hours, bad water, and a lack of proper care for the sick.

The Bundaberg Genealogical Association, using newspaper sources, identified seven reported deaths of Islanders on Sunnyside plantation; these being Coora, 9/09/1887; Tartal 24/04/1888; Yantircca 12/03/1888; Byeena 21/08/1888; Beeteah 12/01/1889; Charlie 18/02/1889 and Neeoo 17/02/1889.

[49] Bundaberg farmers formed a small company which set up a rum distillery in 1888 which helped the industry through these hard times.

[53] Caulfield had 13 years experience overseeing immigrant labour in Ceylon, and was thought to be "zealous in his duties as an inspector of plantations, and investigator of islanders' complaints against their employers".

The Anglican Church was active in converting the Islanders who attended Sunday Service, while also providing evening classes teaching them to read.

However, there were exemptions for those who had arrived prior to 1879; who had married women not of their race; whose children were being educated in state schools; and those who possessed freehold land or who were fearful of their lives if returned to their former homes.

Frank Courtice, city organiser of the Bundaberg District Workers Union, said he supported the development of the State refinery system and the cutting up of plantations into smaller farms run by individual farmers.

This concept was supported by Henry Albert Cattermull, overseer on Sunnyside, who said he had used white labourers since 1902, who were mostly local farmers' sons, and he found them more reliable than itinerant workers.

The grave of former owner Sidney Thomas Courtice 1/04/1922-13/08/2007) is located under the westernmost of the two mature fig trees on the northern part of the property and is not considered to be of state heritage significance.

It is also known that local bank manager, member of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society and trustee of the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens, William Fullerton, was cultivating them for distribution around the town in 1897.

[1][82] The listing originally focused on the wall remains, but was substantially expanded in 2013 to include the fig trees and graves after a long campaign by the Action Group in conjunction with the current owner, former federal MP Brian Courtice, a staunch advocate of recognising the abuses that occurred at Sunnyside and the graves of those who had died as a result.

It is constructed of local surface volcanic rock, colloquially known as blue metal, collected when the land was being cleared for sugar cultivation in the 1880s.

[1] The site of 29 South Sea Islander labourer burials mapped by Bundaberg Regional Council in 2012 is located about 50 metres (160 ft) to the south-east of the fig trees.

Also identified in this area was a raised, linear ground feature believed to be part of a roadway-also known as a headland-dating from the sugar plantation era.

The wall is also important physical evidence of the manual nature of this contribution, for without the availability of indentured labour, Woongarra Scrub farmers could not have converted their lands to an activity as initially labour-intensive as sugar growing.

The boundary wall, which is approximately 200 metres (660 ft) in length, survives as one of the more intact examples of its type in the Bundaberg district, which around the turn of the century was chequered with such structures.

Although diminished in length, what survives of the dry-rubble wall is substantially intact, and provides a good example of this type of construction employed in the Bundaberg district in the late 19th century.

The South Sea Islander community of Bundaberg has indicated that this place facilitates a strong and special spiritual association with their ancestors who lived and worked on Sunnyside plantation.

[1] The dry-rubble wall, two fig trees and burial site on the former Sunnyside represent a distinctive phase of Queensland's history and may potentially be used to illustrate events which have had a profound effect on the lives of descendants of the South Sea Islanders and of their communities.

The dry-rubble wall, fig trees and burial site at Sunnyside have an important association with the exploitation of the large South Sea Islander workforce employed in the Bundaberg district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.