The park has an area of 224,600 square metres (2,418,000 sq ft) and is one of the oldest in Brisbane, having been established in 1882, and has been a World War I memorial since 1917.

[1] The area was inhabited by the Coorparoo or Yerongpan clans of the Jagera tribe before the arrival of Europeans, and continued to be used by them for some time after the establishment of a convict settlement Brisbane in 1824.

[1] Development of the Darling Downs made the Ipswich Road the main route to the interior, and the initial rough track was surveyed in the 1860s.

In 1882 the Yeerongpilly Divisional Board declared 419,900 square metres (4,520,000 sq ft) of land off Ipswich Road to be a Public Park and Recreation Ground.

By 1887 the Stephens Division had a population of 3480, and by the 1890s Yeronga had become popular with the elite, with grand homes intermingling with farming estates and small subdivisions.

In 1882 103 acres and three roods (41.9 hectares), of portions 153A, 154A, and 155A Parish of Yeerongpilly, County of Stanley, was declared a reserve for a Public Park and Recreation Ground.

In 1888 102 acres, three roods and 62 perches were declared a permanent reserve under the Stephens Divisional Board, and areas of the current park were cleared.

In 1975 another part of 153A facing School Road was excised for a Meals on Wheels Depot, and the current park covers 22.46 hectares.

Each tree was accompanied by a timber post topped with a metal shield which bore the name of a soldier by the Stephens Shire who had died in the war.

The dedication on the southern inner pier of the Ipswich Road Gates, to the women workers of Stephens Shire, is also unusual in Queensland.

[1] The outpouring of grief in Australia that accompanied the deaths of 60,000 servicepeople in World War I, and the fact that the dead were buried overseas, led to a period of memorial-building across the nation.

Of the 559 residents of the Stephens Shire that had enlisted in World War I, the names of 97 are carved into the marble tablets fixed onto a stone in the centre of the memorial pavilion.

The old-style plaque and post arrangement can be seen under a mango tree in front of the Country Women's Association Rooms on School Road, dedicated to Private Thomas Markey.

The Yeronga Park shale stone wall, which runs south along Ipswich Road from the memorial gates appears to have been the result of a Depression works project in the mid 1930s.

The Annerley Girl Guides was formed in 1934, and their current timber hall may be a relic of the World War II military occupation of the park, with a 1950s concrete block extension.

[1] Some features of the park have disappeared over time, and these include the small huts, with white or grey mineral siding, built in World War II for the United States' military.

A brick pavilion to the west of the South's Rugby Clubrooms, visible in aerial photographs from 1960 onwards, has been demolished recently.

Honour Avenue has lost a number of its original trees, and the most easterly section of bitumen and kerbing, near the Ipswich Road Gates, has been removed.

Low brick walls form a small enclosure on the park side of each pedestrian entrance, and there is a wooden fence leading to the gates from the footpath, north and south of the piers.

On each face underneath the cornices is a decorative band of render inset with a green glazed tile displaying a floral pattern.

[1] The World War I memorial pavilion stands on the southern edge of the rough-formed carpark of the ex-bowling clubhouse, near a palm-lined pedestrian path running diagonally from Honour Avenue to Ipswich Road.

Marble tablets on each side of the stone pillar record the names of the dead from Stephens Shire, in World War I.

A plaque also notes: July 1921 — Erected by the residents of Stephens Shire and District in appreciation of our boys who sacrificed their lives in the Great War 1914–1919.

[1] The Scout hall is low set, long and rectangular, with narrow vertical timber boards for most of the building, and weatherboards around the wider eastern section.

The weatherboard clubhouse of the Stephens Croquet Club is a small rectangular building with a gambrel roof clad with corrugated iron.

[1] A large in-ground draughtsboard stands between the ex- Bowling Club and Honour Avenue, and an arris rail fence runs north from the memorial gates along Ipswich Road.

The CWA building is a modest timber cottage, supported on low concrete stumps and sheltered by a hip roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting.

Within the layout, structures, buildings, plantings and activities pursued in the park are illustrated several important themes and events in Queensland's history.

These historical layers include: sporting activities since the 1880s, including Queensland Blind Cricket, bowls and croquet since the 1920s; Boy Scouts and Girl Guides activities; a World War I and World War II memorial function; and providing a Depression-era work opportunity in the construction of the stone wall along Ipswich Road.

The shale stone wall, running south from the Ipswich Road gates towards the former Yeronga Fire Station, is a picturesque feature.