[2] On 22 April 1881, a 4.1-square-kilometre (1.6 sq mi) area with a population of 1,192 was split from the Division and incorporated as the Borough of Bundaberg under the Local Government Act 1878.

[9] Bundaberg grew to 45.2 square kilometres (17.5 sq mi) and was united with what was then its entire suburban extent.

On 21 November 1991, the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission, created two years earlier, produced its second report, and recommended that local government boundaries in the Bundaberg area be rationalised.

The Local Government (Bundaberg and Burnett) Regulation 1993 was gazetted on 17 December 1993, and on 30 March 1994, a portion of the Woongarra (the rest of which was merged into the new Shire of Burnett) was transferred to the City, more than doubling its area and increasing its population by 8,200 in 1991 census terms.

On 15 March 2008, under the Local Government (Reform Implementation) Act 2007 passed by the Parliament of Queensland on 10 August 2007, the City of Bundaberg merged with the Shires of Burnett, Isis and Kolan to form the Bundaberg Region.