Goondiwindi Regional Council was formed in 2008 by the amalgamation of Goondiwindi town, Inglewood Shire and Waggamba Shire. The new council area's southern boundary is the New South Wales border and extends for about 250 km westwards, from near the Pike Creek reservoir almost to Mungindi. Its north-south extent reaches from just short of Moonie to Goondiwindi, about 90 km.

The western two-thirds of the council's area was the former Waggamba Shire. It surrounded Goondiwindi and was headquartered there. Its few small towns are on the railway running from Warwick to Inglewood and Goondiwindi (1908) and on to Dirranbandi. The railway came rather late to the region, as Goondiwindi had been a border customs town (1859) and a municipal council (1888). There was also a branch line (1930-85) from Inglewood to Texas, near the southern border of Inglewood shire. The constituent municipalities' contributions to the new regional council were:

Goondiwindi is the Regional Council's business centre. All the other towns have fewer than 1000 people: Inglewood (900), Texas (700) and Yelarbon (450). Agriculture is the dominant employer in the western two-thirds (54% of employment in the former Waggamba Shire in 2001). Sheep, beef cattle, grain and field crops are all significant contributors. In the former Inglewood shire, Goondiwindi Regional Council's eastern third, agriculture accounted for 38% of total employment, but with proportionately more livestock grazing. Irrigation from the MacIntyre Brook and Dumaresq River holds out prospects for increased cropping in the Inglewood district, and there are forest and mineral reserves.