The town of Naracoorte now stands on the land of Naracoorte Station, originally selected by George Ormerod in 1842. In 1845, Ormerod sold a portion of the property to William Macintosh, who established the settlement of Kincraig there. In the mid-1850s, George Ormerod sold the remainder of the run to William and John Macintosh. Thomas Magarey bought the lease of Naracoorte. Thus the two townships, Kincraig and Naracoorte, emerged side by side.

In 1869 the rivalry that had arisen between the settlements was sufficiently settled for the two townships to combine under the one name of Naracoorte, with the aim of tying to achieve a local Council.

The settlers were, by this time, extremely concerned about the condition of the roads and bridges. Some attempted to have the South East made part of Victoria. The roads were the concern of the South Eastern Roads Board, which in turn was answerable to a faraway Government with other demands on its Treasury.

In 1862 an allocation of 4,000 pounds, a considerable amount of money for those days, was made by the South Australian Government for the construction of a road from Mount Gambier to Naracoorte. This road project led to the first overland mail coach service between Port MacDonnell and Strathalbyn via Mount Gambier, Penola and Naracoorte.

Finally a petition requesting Local Government, signed by sixty people consisting of townspeople and many new settlers, was successful. On 25 August 1870, the District Council of Naracoorte was proclaimed by the Governor Sir William Robinson, with the jurisdiction of the Hundred of Naracoorte.

The first Council meeting was held on 5 September 1870 in a house belonging to William Macinosh, and this became the home of the Council for the next seven years. At this meeting Mr D. Simpson was appointed Chairman, and it was also resolved that he should act as Clerk until the next meeting. He performed this duty until 17 September 1870, when Mr John Thomas was appointed to the position.

The District Council of Naracoorte joined the District Councils Association on 19 December 1870.

On March 1871, at a meeting which all the Councillors attended for the first time, Mr Dominic Daniel Daly, one time A.D.C. to his uncle Sir Dominic Daly, Governor of South Australia from 1862 to 1868, and already celebrated as one of the surveyors of the Overland Telegraph, was appointed Surveyor and Overseer at a fee of 2.5 per cent of each contract.

In 1888 the Council was extended to include the Hundreds of Hynam, Binnum, Jessie, Joanna, Robertson, Lochaber, and Glenroy. The Hundred of Jessie was named in honour of the wife of Sir Arthur Blyth, who was the Commissioner of Crown Lands when the Hundred was proclaimed. Joanna had been proclaimed in 1862, and was named after the daughter of Sir Dominic Daly. There were four Wards (Central, South, North East and North West) represented by a total of nine Councillors.

From the earliest days of the Council, all District works were done by contract and it was not until the 1930s that the policy changed to one of purchasing machinery and having works done by Council employees. This policy has continued until the present, but not without considerable debate and discussion.

With the exception of tools of trade, the first equipment acquired by the Council was a horse-drawn roller, purchased in Adelaide in 1879 for the sum of 48 pounds. Another roller was purchased at a later date, together with two horse-drawn graders. Eventually motorised graders were purchased and the horse-drawn equipment was superseded.

The first appointment of an auditor was made on 15 July 1878. This appointment followed an offer made by Mr G. Price to audit the Council’s accounts annually for a fee of 10 pounds. This offer was accepted, providing the other councils in the South East agreed to the proposal. In 1879 Messers Archibald Caldwell and Manes McGilchrist were appointed auditors.

In 1923, moves were made for the separation of the Town of Naracoorte from the District Council. A Committee comprising Messers Carracher, Brown, Bourne, Holmes, and Findlater was set up to consider the suggestion, and they favoured the change.

In September 1923 the petition was gazetted, and the division took place the following year on 7 February 1924. Following the severance, the Wards of the District Council were changed. There were now five (Frances, Hynam, Kybybolite, Lochaber and Robertson), each served by two Councillors.

During these early days, only essential work was carried out, and meetings were held at times convenient to the Councillors – quite often on Saturday mornings.

By 1942 the sum of 3,070 pounds was available for roadworks. The District Clerk’s salary was 390 pounds, and the Chairman received an annual allowance of 25 pounds.

At about this time twenty-four knapsack sprays were purchased, forerunners to the present vast and efficient fleet of eighteen fire trucks.

In 1947 the Council acquired a site in Smith Street and set up its own workshop to service its growing plant. A permanent Ranger/Inspector was engaged at a salary of 7 pounds per week.

The machinery had been added to at different stages, and by 1948 power graders were making their presence felt on roadworks. By 1950 front-end loaders were taking over from manual loading. In this year a bulldozer was purchased for 5,428 pounds.

Costs were making it difficult to open up new roads in some Wards, and this brought about the introduction differential rating. The period between 1950 and 1955 saw the introduction of long-service leave schemes, the Coronation celebrations, and the opening of the broad-gauge railway. A bitumen-sealing plant was purchased for 7,000 pounds and a crushing plant was set up adjacent to the town area. The new assessment totalled 380,374 pounds.

During 1957 the Council Chambers were given a facelift costing several thousand pounds: The original cost of the building had been 670 pounds in 1885. The present workshop area was opened to care for the ever-growing Council plant.

The District Council of Naracoorte was one of the first Local Government authorities to plan and execute a program of sealed District roads. It adopted the Victorian system of narrow-width sealing on a fairly light base construction, thus enabling maximum benefits with available funds.

While many of these roads have now been reconstructed for more and heavier vehicular use, others still service large areas. The Council also built bridges and operated crushing plants, projects not usually undertaken by Local Government bodies in South Australia.

In 1964 moves were made to acquire larger premises for administration, and the move was eventually made to the present chambers, where the first meeting was held in June 1965.

In 1970, the centenary year of the District Council of Naracoorte, the assessed value of the District Council stood at 1,521,219 pounds, with a rate revenue of 190,152 pounds. There were approximately 1,125 kilometres of open-surfaced roads and 350 kilometres of sealed roads. The plant consisted of five graders, four tractors, three loaders, eight rollers, one rock buster, five trucks, three small buses, one sedan, three utilities and a compressor.

In 1984 the Council adopted an assessed value of 128,707,700 pounds, with a rate revenue of 814,369 pounds. At that time the road making plant consisted of four graders, four trucks, five utilities (including dual-cabin utilities for road maintenance), six rollers, a scraper, a rock buster, a backhoe, a front-end loader, a service van, a water tanker, a low loader, a bitumen sprayer, and a compressor. A comprehensive workshop was fully equipped to do most of the maintenance needed on the equipment.

In February 1984 the District Council of Naracoorte joined the Corporation of Naracoorte and the Naracoorte TAFE in a joint Library Board. During 1983/84 the council contributed $2,675 on the understanding that a contribution towards the administration costs would be made in 1984/85. This contribution amounted to 10 per cent of the administration costs, with a total payment including books of $10,200.

The District Council of Naracoorte also had joint representation with the Corporation of Naracoorte on the Cemetery Board, the Aerodrome Board, the Tourism Association and the Pest Plant Control Board. The Naracoorte and Districts Pest Plant Control Board was formed in April 1981, with members from each of the Naracoorte Councils under the administration of a Secretary, a full-time Pest Plant Officer, and a spray operator who also acted as the Council’s Vertebrate Pest Officer.

Following representations from vendors and stock agents who were anxious to improve the marketing of stock in the region, a joint committee compromising the Corporation and the District Council was appointed in November 1970 to investigate the feasibility and desirability of establishing a Municipal sale yards complex. Following the Corporation’s withdrawal, the investigations were continued by the District Council.

The report was presented and accepted by the Council in November 1971, and then referred to the Minister of Local Government who approved the project in October/November 1972. The Council then purchased 23.42 hectares 3 kilometres east of the town and began construction. The sale yards were officially opened on 1 December 1973 by the then District Clerk Mr. R. D. Rule.

A total of $468,000 was borrowed during 1973, a further $35,000 in 1974 and $25,000 in 1977 to finance extensions to the yards. The yards were designed to accommodate live weight selling facilities and these were completed in 1982 with an installation cost of $57,500.

The District Council of Naracoorte was extremely proud of its efforts and success with the sale yards project, for when it entered this field there was no similar precedent in South Australia by any other Local Government body. During the first 10 years of operation, the throughput of the yards exceeded 6,310,000 sheep and lambs and 1,019,000 cattle.

The year 1984 saw the annexation of part of the Hundred Glenroy to the District Council of Tatiara. A petition from electors in that area believed that a stronger ‘community of interest’ existed within Padthaway, which was located within the District Council of Tatiara. The decision transferred approximately 16,000 hectares of land and in 1984/85 approximately $80,000 rate revenue.