Western Downs Regional Council 2.99

Western Downs Region is a local government area in Queensland, Australia. The Western Downs Regional Council manages an area of 38039km2, which is approximately the same size as the country of Switzerland, although with a population at the last census of close to 33,000, it is over 235 times less densely populated.The area is home to prime farming land and thus agriculture is a major industry in the area. Dalby, the biggest town in the region is home to the second largest cattle saleyards in Australia. The Dalby Saleyards process over 200,000 cattle annually in its state of the art facility which is comparable to Rockhampton and Casino.The Western Downs Regional Council's Corporate Office is situated at 30 Marble Street, Dalby.HistoryWestern Downs Region was created in March 2008 as a result of the report of the Local Government Reform Commission released in July 2007.Prior to the 2008 amalgamation, the new Region, located in the Darling Downs region, consisted the entire area of five previous local government areas: the Town of Dalby; the Shire of Chinchilla; the Shire of Murilla; the Shire of Tara; the Shire of Wambo; and Division 2 of the Shire of Taroom. The report recommended that the new local government area should not be divided into wards and elect ten councillors and a mayor. The report estimated that the resident population in 2006 was 30,018 and the operating budget was A$74 million.