Cressbrook Provisional School was operating in 1881 but closed in 1882 due to low student numbers; its opening date is unknown. What is now Toogoolawah town was surveyed privately when Cressbrook estate was subdivided and sold as
dairy farms in 1904. The town plan was not registered with the survey office until 1 June 1909. The extension of the
Brisbane Valley railway line from
Esk to the new town () was opened on 8 February 1904. A Toogoolawah receiving office was opened in June 1904 and was elevated to
post office status in July 1905. Toogoolawah Provisional School opened on 30 May 1905. On 1 January 1909, it became Toogoolawah State School. A secondary department was added on 28 January 1975 until a separate high school opened on 25 January 1988. On Sunday 12 May 1912,
St Andrew's Anglican Church was dedicated by Archbishop St Clair Donaldson. A
condensed milk factory was built shortly after the railway station was opened. The factory was closed in 1929, after
Nestlé moved all its condensed milk production to
Victoria, resulting in the town's population decreasing by half. The Toogoolawah War Memorial commemorates those who served in
World War I. Unlike most war memorials that were erected after the war, the Toogoolawah memorial was unveiled during the war on 31 March 1917 by the Rev. Chaplain Merrington. On 20 October 1940, a church building was relocated to Toogoolawah to reopen in Gardner Street North as the Cornerstone Lutheran Church (). It was formerly the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in
Jeebropilly, which opened on 20 April 1898, closing circa 1938. Toogoolawah State High School opened on 25 January 1988, replacing the secondary department attached to Toogoolawah State School. Toogoolawah was partially cut off by flooding as a result of the
2010–2011 Queensland floods. == Demographics ==