Local government in Queensland, Australia, includes the institutions and processes by which towns and districts can manage their own affairs to the extent permitted by the Local Government Act 1993–2007. Queensland is divided into 78 local government areas, which may be called Cities, Towns, Shires, or Regions. Each area has a council that is responsible for providing a range of public services and utilities and derives its income from both rates and charges on resident ratepayers and grants and subsidies from the state and Commonwealth governments.

As bodies which obtain their legitimacy from an Act of the Queensland Parliament, local councils are subordinate rather than sovereign entities and can be created, amalgamated, abolished, or dismissed by the state at will. In modern practice, however, decisions on such matters are made in response to recommendations by independent Reform Commissions, such as the Electoral and Administrative Reform Commission (1990–1993) and the Local Government Reform Commission (2007). Recent reforms, which took effect on 15 March 2008, resulted in over 70% of Queensland's local government areas being amalgamated into larger entities and generated a considerable degree of controversy, even attracting national interest in the context of a federal election campaign.

As a result of Queensland and New South Wales local government amalgamations, Australia's three largest-by-population local government areas are all in Queensland:

The first example of local government in the Queensland area came before the separation of Queensland from New South Wales. The Municipalities Act 1858 allowed for the creation of a municipality upon the petition of not less than 50 householders within a defined area. If no counter-petition with more signatures was received, the Governor was able to declare a municipality in the region. Two types of municipalities were possible under the Act: boroughs, which had a minimum population of 1,000, a maximum area of 9 sq mi (23.3 km²) and no two parts being more than 6 miles (9.66 km) apart; and municipal districts, with a minimum population of 500 and a maximum area of 50 sq mi (129.5 km²). Once a municipality had been proclaimed, ratepayers could elect a council to represent them.

The first to be declared was Brisbane, with a population of 5,000 and an area of 14.25 square kilometres (5.5 sq mi). Its first attempt in January 1859 was unsuccessful due to a counter-petition, but its second attempt with 420 signatories was gazetted on 25 May 1859 and proclaimed by the Governor of New South Wales on 7 September 1859. On 16 November, a petition containing 91 signatures was received seeking to have Ipswich, which had 3,000 people, granted municipal town status. On 29 November, the letters patent authorised by Queen Victoria, which were to make Queensland a separate colony, were published in New South Wales, and the petition was forwarded to the new Queensland governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen. On 10 December 1859, the same day that the letters patent were published in Queensland, the petition was regazetted. On 3 March 1860, the Town of Ipswich was proclaimed.

Following this, eight other councils obtained municipality status under the Act: Toowoomba (19 November 1860), Rockhampton (13 December 1860), Maryborough (23 March 1861), Warwick (25 May 1861), Drayton (1862), Gladstone (20 February 1863), Bowen (7 August 1863) and Dalby (21 August 1863).

By 1879, almost all of Queensland was under some form of local administration, either as a municipality under the Local Government Act 1878 or as a division under the Divisional Boards Act 1879.

In September 1864, the first comprehensive Queensland local government legislation, the Municipal Institutions Act 1864, was enacted, repealing the previous Act. The Act allowed municipalities to charge rates, borrow money, enact bylaws, control or regulate public infrastructure and utilities, and provide public amenities such as gardens and hospitals.