It stands on a small suburban site that includes an earlier timber church (1913) remodelled with brick in 1966 to harmonise with its 1950s replacement, and a columbarium (c. 2000).

The Wilston Methodist Memorial Church was designed by prominent Brisbane architecture firm, Ford Hutton and Newell.

[5][6] The opening of a railway line from Bowen Hills to Enoggera in 1899, which included a station at Wilston, provided transport to the city centre and stimulated the transformation of the farming district to suburban residential use.

[7][8][9][10] The suburb took its name from "Wilston" - 300 acres (121 ha) of land on which William Wilson, a city merchant and politician, built a stone house c. 1876.

[16][17] It spread rapidly throughout the United States of America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, via itinerant preachers; and later throughout the world via Methodist missionaries.

[19][1] The first Methodist church in Brisbane was a modest brick chapel constructed in 1849 on the corner of Albert Street and Burnett Lane.

[21][1] Wilston Methodist Church, a gothic-inspired timber building, was erected in 1913 on three small suburban allotments bounded by Kedron Brook Road, Hawdon Street and Dibley Avenue.

Portion 260 had been granted to Patrick Byrne in 1850 sold in 1862 to Shepherd Smith, manager of the Brisbane branch of the Bank of New South Wales and resold to William Henry Paling, musician and merchant, of Sydney in 1888.

Paling subdivided the land into residential allotments at the height of Brisbane's 1880s building boom, but due to the 1890s economic depression that followed, it was not sold.

[22][23][24][25][26] These 16-perch (405m2) allotments were part of the Paling Estate, a residential subdivision created in 1909; most of which sold prior to the commencement of World War I (WWI) in 1914.

The timber-framed, chamferboard-clad building with a front porch, vestries and corrugated-iron roof was sited close to Dibley Avenue and faced Hawdon Street.

[47] In the following year, the Telegraph newspaper reported that the church would be built in honour of those men and women of the Windsor Circuit serving in the armed forces.

The congregation appointed the Brisbane-based architecture firm Ford Hutton and Newell to design a modern church rather than a traditional building.

[61][62] Carried out between 1953 and 1957, the Mission was the greatest attempt ever made by the Methodist Church to reform the nation, emphasising the Christian faith as the only answer to social and industrial problems.

Meetings conducted by campaign leader Reverend Alan Walker were held in capital cities and provincial centres throughout the country.

[66][67] Many new Methodist churches, Sunday school halls, and parsonages were constructed throughout Queensland, replacing older buildings and responding to demand in new suburbs and growing regions.

The church also erected new buildings to support its various charities and organisations, including: aged-persons homes, hostels, Young People's Department (YPD) Camps, and Kings College at the University of Queensland's St Lucia campus (opened 1955).

[68][69][70] By the late 1950s, increased income, due to the introduction of weekly money pledges from the congregation, facilitated church building programmes.

[71][1] The 1950s were also a period of substantial change within the Methodist and other Christian denominations throughout Australia, as they sought to remain relevant to modern society.

Reflecting international trends, church designs moved away from historical revival styles and became increasingly influenced by Modernism.

[76][77] Modernism emphasised minimalism, limited ornamentation and focused on a rational use of materials, often new ones, and structural innovations, including asymmetrical compositions.

An early timber honour board listing the names of those of the congregation who served during WWII remains fixed to the interior of the front wall of the Wilston Methodist Memorial Church Hall.

[1] It has an expressive Modernist style, evident through its asymmetrical massing, refined composition, simple forms and volumes, and use of a restrained materials palette.

A tall memorial tower with carillon stands at the northwest corner of the site and is connected to the main block by a walkway under a lower flat roof which also forms an entrance lobby and side aisle to the nave.

The main block's structure comprises concrete-encased steel portal frames, expressed on the exterior face-brick walls by bricks laid at 45 degrees.

[1] The front entrance lobby features awning windows with a wrought metal screen and is accessed via a wide face-brick stair with integrated side garden beds.

The church retains original and early fixtures, fittings, and furniture including lighting, pulpit, choir stall, and chancel rail.

It illustrates the preference following WWII for memorialising the sacrifices of war through utilitarian forms, such as memorial halls, libraries, and swimming pools.

This aspect of the place's cultural heritage significance is demonstrated in its: all-encompassing and unified modernist aesthetic; restrained materials palette; form and layout expressive of worship practices; and simplified traditional church spaces (nave, sanctuary, vestries), church fixtures, fittings, furniture (including chancel rail, pulpit, and choir stall), and motifs.

Wilston Methodist Memorial Church has aesthetic importance for its architectural qualities expressive of Methodism's expansionist outlook post-World War II and its desire to remain relevant to Queensland society at the time.