In 1993, Queensland's Local Government Act was revised for the first time since 1936. This paper is born of a realisation, based on research sponsored by the Local Government Association of Queensland, that much less is known and understood about the development of local government in Queensland than we have previously believed. The consequences of this are particularly serious at present, because important changes are currently being made to local government features on the basis of a very imperfect understanding of the role, operation and significance of those features. In this paper, I deal with an important aspect of the territorial dimension of local government, and point to the contemporary significance of a deeper appreciation of the development of local government from the territorial perspective.