[1] The majority of the former Warwick Shire is home to the Githabul people who have lived around this area for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans in the early 1840s.

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 Warwick area be rationalised.

In July 2007, the Local Government Reform Commission released its report and recommended that Warwick and Stanthorpe amalgamate.

* - not to be confused with Willow Vale, Queensland The Southern Downs Regional Council operates public libraries at Allora, Stanthorpe, and Warwick.

[12] It also operates a mobile library servicing Dalveen, Karara, Killarney, Leyburn, Maryvale, Pratten, Wheatvale and Yangan.