Prior to its 2016 merger, the council area was located about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of the Sydney central business district and had a culturally diverse population.

[7] In 1913 Rookwood was renamed "Lidcombe", a portmanteau of the names of the two previous mayors, in an attempt to distance the municipality from the necropolis.

[9] Designed by E. A. Henry and built by Wilkins & Fewster of Granville, the town hall was also officially opened by Cook on 29 June 1898.

[10] This building was short-lived however, and was replaced in 1926–1927 on the same site by the second Town Hall which was designed by the mayor, Albert Thomas "Benny" Briggs, and built by H. M.

[11][12] The former Auburn mayor and then state Premier, Jack Lang, laid the foundation stone on 6 November 1926 and officially opened the building on 12 July 1927.

This continued until the completion of the Auburn Administrative Building, which was officially opened by the mayor, Stanley Hedges, on 10 July 1965.

It was situated at the rear of the existing Town Hall on a block fronting Susan and Queen Street, Auburn and was completed at a final cost of AU£198,000.

[18] The Auburn Botanic Gardens originated from the County of Cumberland planning scheme (1946–1951) which set aside the area along the banks of the Duck River for recreation.

Both before and after the scheme, Auburn council dumped rubbish and sewage along the banks and in brick and tile clay-pits for many years.

[8] In March 2013, Auburn council voted to dismiss the general manager since 2005, John Burgess, in a decision derided as entirely political and resulting from the general manager's release of information relating to the corrupt activities of former councillor and deputy mayor, Jack Au, to the ICAC, who was subsequently suspended by the Minister for Local Government.

"[21] In 2015–16, council came under increasing scrutiny when the deputy mayor, Salim Mehajer was charged with threatening the father of one of the victims in the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis and was investigated over a conflict of interest when he voted on council matters regarding rezoning despite it being alleged that he had pecuniary interests in those matters.

[24][23][25][26] The former Liberal mayor, Ronney Oueik, later appeared before the state government public inquiry conducted by Commissioner Richard Beasley SC, and denied suggestions that he had shown favouritism in several planning decisions, as well as opposing developments of political opponents.

The first proposed a merger of parts of Auburn, Holroyd and Parramatta to form a new council with an area of 72 square kilometres (28 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 219,000.

[31] The second proposed a merger of parts of Parramatta, Auburn, The Hills, Hornsby, and Holroyd to form a new council with an area of 82 square kilometres (32 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 215,725.

At the last meeting of the Cumberland Council to be held at the Auburn Civic Centre on 21 December 2016, with the council chambers being taken over by the Auburn Library, the administrator, Viv May, noted: "It is no secret that in recent years these Chambers bore witness to behaviour by a select few Councillors and staff that did not meet the minimum standards of probity, transparency or decency that the public has every right to expect from its public officials.

To dwell on the negative is to omit from this story the wonderful contributions of many people who did seek to act in the interest of the public, including past Alderman, Councillors and Council Staff.

At the 2011 Census, the proportion of residents in the Auburn local government area who stated their ancestry as Chinese, or as Lebanese, was in excess of six times the national average.