Until further development of the site it was variously used to graze cattle and horses, and as a source of clay for bricks for use in government buildings.

However it was not until 1892 that the Council was formally vested with the title to the land, on the condition that the whole area remain a recreation ground and be used for no other purpose.

Fencing was a significant stage in the development of the park because it prohibited itinerant and destructive cattle and also allowed regulation of hours of opening.

The Council was also concerned with the draining of swamps throughout Toowoomba including swampy land on the western side of Queens Park.

That part allotted to the Botanic Gardens was at the northern end of the site, in the small rectangular section forming one of the arms of the L-shaped block.

The curator was essential to the success of the Botanic Gardens as a scientific research tool - Way was responsible for liaising with Walter Hill about the layout, planting projects and overseeing the construction of appropriate structures therein.

The two local newspapers reported in October and November 1875 that the Queens Park and the Botanic Gardens had been lately improved with walks, borders, flower beds, nurseries of exotic trees, specimen grass plantings from the Acclimatization Society, and a bush house.

[1] With the Botanical Gardens well underway, it was time for the Council to concentrate on the development of Queen's Park which was still pitted with holes and without vegetation.

As much as for public recreation, the establishment of the baths located in this position seems to have been part of a strategy to drain this area of what was known as the East Swamp of Toowoomba.

The baths were removed in 1964 and replaced with the Vera Lacaze Memorial Park, an interesting example of modernist landscape architecture in Queensland.

[1] The development of the Botanic Gardens continued in the 1890s with the construction of several buildings, including a curator's cottage, kiosk, bandstand and, in 1900, a zoo on the southern boundary of the park.

One of the most prominent changes that occurred during the 1970s was the replacement of the existing fence on the Lindsay and Campbell Street sides of the Botanic Gardens with a low sandstone footwall.

Just inside this gate is another recent addition, a doorway feature from a local demolished building, comprising two granite columns with ionic caps joined by a sandstone entablature.

The most apparent plantings are those forming the Camphor laurel avenue from the Botanic Gardens and aligned with the Thomas Memorial and large established trees surrounding the eastern end and northern border of the Park.

In the south west corner of the park is a more formal area, known as the Vera Lacaze Gardens and containing a bridge between lawned mounds and toilet block.

[1] Toowoomba Queens Park and Botanic Gardens was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 April 2001 having satisfied the following criteria.

The Toowoomba Queen's Park and adjacent Botanic Gardens is significant as a substantially intact 19th century public recreation reserve.

The Botanic Gardens is important in demonstrating the introduction of scientific centres associated with the development of economic and ornamental botany, the knowledge of which benefited the colony.

[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.