From 1829 the windmill tower was said to be continually requiring repair, possibly because its equipment was all made from locally available timber rather than iron. Two sketches from the early 1830s show the windmill tower and its sail stocks in place, while an 1839 description depicts a tower built from stone and brick, comprising four floors, a treadmill and windmill. The former was located outside the tower, a shaft connecting the treadwheel and the mill cogwheels inside. There were two pairs of millstones inside the tower, each driven independently by the treadmill and sail mechanisms. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the wind-powered grinding of grain did not begin until December. By 31 October 1828 the first grain was being ground at the site by a mill gang however it is supposed that this was done by a treadmill as the rotating cap and sails associated with the wind-powered operation of the mill were not brought to the site until November. The mill was constructed on the highest point overlooking the settlement on what is now Wickham Terrace. Allan Cunningham noted soon after that construction was in progress. In July 1828, Peter Beauclerk Spicer, the Superintendent of Convicts at the time, recorded in his diary that convicts were "clearing ground for foundations for the Mill" and proceeded to dig a circular trench that reached bedrock and had a circumference of approximately 9 metres (30 ft). There is little evidence confirming details of the windmill tower's planning and construction. Commandant Patrick Logan indicated at this time that such a device at Brisbane town would be of service and also provide an avenue for the punishment of convicts. By 1827, with a substantial crop to process, the settlement storekeeper recommended a treadmill be erected to grind the crop into flour. The growing settlement was to be self-sufficient in feeding its residents by cultivating corn (also known as maize) and wheat crops at the government farm, which were then processed into meal and flour by hand mills. In May 1825, after eight months of occupation at Redcliffe, the contingent of convicts, soldiers, administrators and their families comprising the Moreton Bay penal settlement relocated to the site of present-day Brisbane's central business district. The windmill tower was used as a facility for early radio, telephony and television communications research from the 1920s and underwent substantial conservation work in the 1980s and 2009.
Twenty years later a cottage for the signalman was constructed to the immediate west of the tower, with a detached kitchen erected to the south two years after that. Substantial renovations were made to it in 1861 including the installation of a time ball to assist in regulating clocks and watches. From 1855 the tower was reused as a signal station to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town. The mill ceased grinding grain in 1845 and the treadmill was removed sometime before 1849. Constructed in 1828 to process the wheat and corn crops of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, it had a treadmill attached for times when there was no wind but also as a tool for punishing convicts. The oldest convict-built structure surviving in Queensland, the windmill tower has accommodated a range of uses.