The area is traversed by the Hume Highway and the Southern Highlands railway line.

Wollondilly Shire contains several small towns and villages broken up by farms and sandstone gorges.

[3] A temporary council of five members was appointed on 16 May 1906, which comprised: Richard Henry Antill of Jarvisfield, Picton, Thomas Donohue of Burragorang, George Frederick Litchfield of Yerranderie, George Macarthur-Onslow of Camden Park, Menangle, and John Simpson of Macquarie Dale, Appin.

[23] The proposal for a "Picton Shire" was subsequently gazetted on 25 August 1939 and on 20 November 1939 the Department of Works and Local Government held an inquiry in Picton on the various issues relating to amalgamation.

[27] At the 2016 census, there were 48,519 people in the Wollondilly local government area, with an equal proportion of males and females.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 2.4% of the population which is on par with the national average.

[29] The median weekly income for residents within the Wollondilly Shire was marginally higher than the national average.

[28][30] At the 2011 Census, the proportion of residents in the Wollondilly local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or Anglo-Saxon was more than 63% (national average was 65.2%).

More than 69% of Wollondilly Shire residents nominated a religious affiliation of Christianity at the 2011 Census, which was well above the national average of 50.2%.