When the District Council of Brighton was proclaimed on 2 November 1853, it included all the land between the River Sturt and the coastline of St. Vincent Gulf and extended as far south as the Field River. The eastern boundary of this district council was extended to South Road in 1867 by the annexation of part of the Mitcham district. As the area along the coastline became closely settled, the government granted permission for its residents to form the Corporations of Glenelg and Brighton. A petition of those left in the district council to rename their area Marion was granted on 2 September 1886.

The new council opened its Sturt Road offices on 1 November 1895, providing a District Hall and Institute as a focus for community life. In 1912 the council area was divided into three wards – North, Central and South – so that each portion of the large district would be adequately represented. During the 1920s there was much speculative sub-division of the original sections of land, but housing was constructed only in the areas closest to the railway stations and Glenelg tram-line. The 1930s Depression brought this development to a halt and forced the council to consider unemployment relief projects. New new council chambers were built next to the District Hall in 1937.

After steady population growth the Corporation of the Town of Marion was proclaimed on 1 April 1944, with Frederick Henson Trott elected as its first Mayor. The return of servicemen from the Second World War created a demand for housing, which saw extensive construction by the South Australian Housing Trust and private developers. As a result the population of the Marion area grew from 11,000 in 1947 to 66,000 in 1966. Elections in the 1950s were contested by the Marion Progress Association, which was formed to represent the interests of the new settlers. The council was hard-pressed to finance all the improvements to roads that the new ratepayers demanded. On 27 May 1967 its new council chambers on Marion Road at Parkholme was opened.

In the 1970s new suburbs were developed in the southern part of the council area. The first female councillor was elected in 1973 and by 1989 five of the ten councillors were women. On 7 February 1990 the council moved back to Sturt Road and occupied a $4 million civic centre built there. A periodic review of representation conducted before the 1991 election decided that three councillors were to be elected from each of East, West, Central and South Wards. During this period the council began to purchase land north of the Westfield Shopping Centre and initiated the Domain Project to ‘provide a heart” for the city. The Marion Cultural Centre was opened there in November 2001 and land set aside for the development of a State Aquatic Centre.