Bundaberg Regional Council

Bundaberg Regional Council was formed in 2008 by the amalgamation of Bundaberg City and Burnett, Isis and Kolan Shires. Its area is 6451 sq km, and the areas of the former councils were:

Burnett Shire entirely surrounded Bundaberg, and some of Bundaberg's urban growth had spilled into the shire. The shire's northern boundary was Baffle Creek, and travelling from north to south in the vicinity of Bundaberg it had the coastal towns of Moore Park, Burnett Heads, Bargara (the shire's headquarters), Innes Park and Elliott Heads.

South of Burnett Shire there was Isis Shire, headquartered at Childers. The Childers district has intensive horticulture and sugar cane farming. Isis Shire's coastal towns were Woodgate and Burrum Heads. Inland from both shires was Kolan Shire, headquartered at Gin Gin. It, too, had horticulture and sugar cane, and considerably more cattle grazing than the coastal shires. Its western extremities, and the Bundaberg Regional Council's, approached Many Peaks and Mount Perry.

The Bundaberg Regional Council area had a network of railways. The first ran inland from Bundaberg, a line to Gin Gin (1881) and on to Mount Perry (1884), drawn to the Mount Perry mines. When the North Coast line was extended to the Bundaberg district in 1888-92, a line was run west from Isis Junction to Childers (1887), and later extended to Dallarnil (1913). There was also a branch line from near Gin Gin to Morganville, opened in stages between 1920 and 1931. Only the North Coast line remains, all the others having been closed in the 1960s. While those lines were being closed the coastal towns from Moore Park to Elliott Heads were growing. Their combined populations in 2006 were more than 13,000.

Bundaberg Regional Council's area has rivers on its north and south, and the Burnett and Kolan Rivers in the middle, both supporting agriculture and horticulture. Lake Monduran (Fred Haigh dam) is upstream on the Kolan. The Fairymead sugar mill is near the Burnett River and the Isis Central sugar mill is near several streams around Childers in the south.

Bundaberg Regional Council's census populations have been: