The site now known as Toowoomba was eventually considered to be the most suitable location for access down the range and in 1852, a town survey was secured.

The construction of the Toowoomba Court House at the intersection of Margaret and Neil street in the 1876-78 and the Toowoomba Post Office facing Margaret Street in 1880, were followed by a substantial two-storeyed U-shaped brick police station, incorporating barracks, lock-up and lock-up keeper's quarters.

Later, two stable buildings, paddocks, a separate lock-up keeper's quarters and inspector's residence were added to the site.

This modest building is a typical Public Works Department design for a residence within a provincial location, and reflecting the hierarchal importance of the Senior Sergeant in relation to other police personnel.

Prominent work included the new police station, improvements at Willowburn Mental Hospital and construction of Toowoomba East State School.

[1] The new complex of police buildings was designed by Raymond Clare Nowland, Senior Architect of the Department of Public Works.

Nowland studied at Sydney Technical College and the Architectural Association in London after which he was employed by the Commonwealth Government, 1920-26.

The Toowoomba Police Station Complex was designed as an integrated range of buildings and Nowland incorporated advice from the local constabulary.

Suggestions and input were considered from all levels of the service, from the night watch house constable to the senior sergeant and district police inspector.

The watch house consisted of cells, charge rooms, laundry, toilet and shower and had an internal exercise yard, creating a compact and spatially introspective building precluding the need for fencing.

The location of barracks and other quarters on the same site as the police station provided an obvious law and order presence within the Toowoomba community at all times.

[1] A building of the Justice department, the Toowoomba Court House, is located at the rear of the police reserve facing Hume Street.

[1] The Toowoomba Police Station complex comprises four buildings: a substantial two-storeyed face brick police station addressing Neil Street; a one-storeyed face brick radio maintenance building on the northern boundary of the site and, to the rear of this, a watch house, comprising a former residence and purpose-built watch house.

The police station is flanked on the Neil Street elevation by face brick fences and gate posts, sections of which have been removed.

This central bay has a large round arched opening on the ground floor, providing access to a small porch housing the entrance door.

Flanking this section of the building are recessed end bays which house side entrance doors under a shallow round arched vaulted awning supported on moulded corbels.

These openings which are accessed via a small concrete stair with simple iron balustrade, house single six panelled doors with round arched fanlight above.

Supporting the roof along the verandah are face brick columns with concrete caps each surmounted by two squat timber posts which extend upward to the eaves line.

Separating this room from the hallway beyond is a shallow arched opening, recently infilled with painted timber panelling and a security door.

[1] Generally the interior of the police station has painted plaster walls, concrete floors lined with carpet, linoleum, and terrazzo in various sections and a ceiling of fibrous cement sheeting housed in a heavy exposed timber frame.

The offices on the ground floor are accessed from the central hall way and are generally intact with corner fireplaces of glazed face brick.

The upper floor originally housing a number of larger room has been more altered with recent partitioning and ceilings inserted.

[1] A now enclosed verandah and passage lines the rear of the two-storeyed section of the police station and separates it from the one-storeyed wings.

The residence faces westward toward the police station and is an assymterical building with a hipped and projecting gabled roof clad with metal sheeting.

To the rear of the former residence is a square planned face brick watch house with a number of small high level openings.

[1] A concrete pad to the south of the watch house provides evidence of an early garage recently removed from the site.

Centrally located on the site is an early steel framed awning with pyramidal roof, protecting petrol bowsers.

The complex is an integral part of an important justice and government administration precinct which includes the former Post Office and Court House.

The other buildings, including the one-storeyed police station extension, are designed to a domestic scale and influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement.