The council was gazetted on 5 January 1888 under the provisions of the District Councils Act 1887, and initially consisted of the cadastral Hundreds of Coonatto, Gregory, Pinda, Willochra and Willowie, and part of the Hundred of Woolundunga.

[1] It was divided into five wards (Coonatto, Pinda, Willowie, Wilmington and Willochra) on 5 June 1888, each represented by two councillors.

It had an estimated population of 732 in 1921, with 250 ratepayers, living in 156 dwellings, with the capital value of ratable property being £145,840.

[6] The council underwent major boundary changes on 16 February 1933 as a result of local government amalgamations at that time: it resumed its former name of Wilmington and incorporated most of the abolished District Council of Woolundunga, and regained the 1890 section of the Hundred of Gregory from the District Council of Port Germein.

[4] It amalgamated with the District Council of Port Germein to form the District Council of Mount Remarkable on 1 July 1980, following boundary changes which had seen Redcliff (now in Miranda) and Stirling North, formerly in Wilmington, annexed to the City of Port Augusta.