The Warrego Highway enters the locality from the east (Warra), then proceeds north-west passing through the town, and then exits to the north-west (Boonarga). The Western railway line runs immediately north and parallel to the highway with two railway stations within the locality:[4]
Apart from the power station and mines in the south-west of the locality, the predominant surface land use is a mixture of crop growing in the north of the locality and grazing on native vegetation in the south of the locality.[4] Crops grown in the area include wheat, barley, sorghum, chick peas, and cotton.[6]
Mulga Provisional School opened in 1896. On 1 January 1909, it became Mulga State School. In 1914, it ceased to be a full-time school and became a half-time school in conjunction with Hill Top Provisional School (later Boonarga State School) with the two schools sharing one teacher. Mulga State School closed in 1915, but reopened in 1917 as a full-time school. It permanently closed in 1943.[9] It was located on a L-shaped land parcel on the kink in Jones Road (26°52′29″S150°48′16″E / 26.8747°S 150.8044°E / -26.8747; 150.8044 (Mulga State School (former).)).[7]
Brigalow Post Office opened by November 1912 (a receiving office, originally named Mulga, had been open from 1895) and closed around 1993.[10]
Brigalow Provisional School opened on 24 February 1908. In 1910, it became Brigalow State School.[9]
The Kogan Creek coal mine is located to the south-east of the power station. It is an open-cut mine which supplies the power station with approximately 2.5Mt of coal each year.[13]
From the town to the south of locality is within petroleum leases held by Arrow CSG (Australia) and Australian CBM to extract coal seam gas.[4] The extraction of coal seam gas within farming districts is controversial in Australia due to concerns that groundwater under prime grazing and cropping land could be contaminated.[19] In April 2018 one operator in Hopeland (to the immediate west of Brigalow), Linc Energy, was fined $4.5 million in May 2019 for causing environmental harm through its underground coal gasification plant.[20][21][22]
In the agricultural economy, there are a number of homesteads in the locality, including:[23]
There is no secondary school in Brigalow. The nearest government secondary schools are Chinchilla State High School (to Year 12) in Chinchilla to the north-west and Jandowae State School (to Year 10) in Jandowae to the north-east.[4]
Olm, Clarence; Brigalow State School. 75th Jubilee Committee (1983), Brigalow State School 75th Jubilee : souvenir booklet, 1908-1983, Brigalow State School 75th Jubilee Committee, ISBN978-0-9590446-0-7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) — includes Blackwood State School, Belah State School, Ehlma State School, Haystack State School, Mulga State School, Noola State School, and Wychie State School