Cochrane was founded in 1954 (as Pueblo Nuevo), but didn't have road access to the rest of Chile until 1988, when the Carretera Austral was opened.

Reportedly, the many pines in the city square of Cochrane were planted on a suggestion dictator Augusto Pinochet made during one of his annual visits to the Carretera Austral.

[2] As a commune, Cochrane is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council, headed by an alcalde who is directly elected every four years.

The commune is represented in the Senate by Antonio Horvath Kiss (RN) and Patricio Walker Prieto (PDC) as part of the 18th senatorial constituency (18).

Owing to its location in a valley behind the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, it is shielded from the heavy rainfall caused by the Humboldt Current, but the precipitation is still relatively abundant and able to support forest, unlike further east in Argentinian Patagonia.