on 11 november 1879, the queensland government created 74 division of local government which saw burleigh heads zoned into the nerang division. on 9 december 1948, as part of a major reorganisation of local government in south east queensland an order in council replaced ten former local government areas between the city of brisbane and the new south wales border with four new local government areas. despite being a part of the nerang shire prior to the reorganisation, burleigh heads was claimed by the newly created town of south coast, joining fellow coastline suburbs southport and coolangatta.