[1] This retaining wall was planned in 1888 to endow William Street with some aesthetic distinction to complement the new Treasury Building being erected opposite the site.

By the turn of the century the cabs had been supplanted by horse-drawn buses, and a small timber and iron shelter for the convenience of waiting passengers had been erected on the William Street pavement abutting the end railing.

In January 1901 large crowds congregated in front of the wall to hear Lord Lamington proclaim the Commonwealth of Australia from a balcony of the Treasury Building opposite.

In the twentieth century motorbuses replaced the horse-drawn vehicles lined along William Street, and by the early 1930s a large timber bus timetable sign had been erected against the railing of the retaining wall.

[1] In the 1920s or early 1930s, fill under the William Street footpath was excavated to accommodate male toilets built into the wall at the Queens Wharf Road level.

Apparently at the same time, a three-metre section of the wall and railing was realigned to accommodate a stairway leading from William Street to the new public conveniences.

[1] As a wartime precaution, the Brisbane City Council erected an air-raid shelter on the Queens Wharf Road frontage of the William Street retaining wall, abutting the Victoria Bridge end, circa early 1940s.

[1] The William Street wall is constructed of rough-coursed porphyry (Brisbane Tuff), with a parapet, sandstone coping and decorative cast-iron railing.

A marble pedestal terminating the wall at the Victoria Bridge end is inscribed WM Galloway Mayor 1889, and supports an elaborate gas lamp stand bearing the words Smith, Faulkner & Co.

[1] Part of the northern abutment of the second permanent Victoria Bridge (1897) survives as the western end of the Queens Wharf Road retaining wall.

Located below Queens Wharf Road and adjacent to the current Victoria Bridge, it is a substantial rock-faced porphyry structure with a smooth sloped sill stone at the junction between the base and the wall above.

Adjoining the abutment is a curved battered wall, constructed of loose rough hewn porphyry blocks, that sits on a concrete base.

The textured surface of the stone, its varied colouration and the light and open effect of the railings endow both walls with special aesthetic appeal.