The Kelvin Grove Defence Reserve opened in 1913. It was renamed a Military Reserve in 1921. By 1939, it comprised five drill halls, two gun parks, an artillery brigade office, artillery officers’ mess and the Frank Moran Memorial Hall. It was a training centre for artillery, signallers, Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) and the Australian Army Service Corps (AASC- supply) of the part-time Australian Military Forces (AMF). The site comprised an Upper Barracks facing Kelvin Grove Road and a Lower Barracks facing Sylvan Road (Blamey Street). The Lower Barracks was undeveloped land used as a Riding School (stables) and grazing for the AMF units’ horses.

No buildings appeared in the Lower Barracks until 1941. After the arrival of US Forces in Brisbane in 1942, their heavy engineering machinery levelled Kelvin Grove’s hilly, sloping parade ground. They created a sunken road (nicknamed 'The Golden Stairs') connecting the Upper and Lower Barracks.

The artillery units were transferred north in mid-1942. Kelvin Grove became a centre for the training of army engineers and signallers. By the War’s end on 15 August 1945, Kelvin Grove was a major militia training facility for militia units fighting in New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland and Bouganville.