The name Brooweena is believed to be an Aboriginal word meaning crab. The town was established following the arrival of the Mungar Junction to Monto Branch Railway in 1889. Brooweena Post Office opened on 23 December 1889. Braemar Provisional School opened on 21 January 1901 and closed on 1 July 1935. It closed in 1922 due to low attendances. It reopened in 1924 and closed on 1 Jul 1935 and the students were transferred to the newly opened Woocoo State School. Braemar is the name of a pastoral property south of Brooweena. Brooweena Provisional School opened on 21 March 1904; the first teacher was Eugenie Eveline Hay. It was upgraded to a State School in 1909. Ballugan Provisional School opened on 12 November 1907. On 1 January 1909 it became Ballugan State School. It closed in December 1909 but reopened in August 1910. It closed permanently on 30 June 1911. In 1915, the chambers of the newly established Shire of Woocoo were constructed in the town. This small building survives to this day as part of the Early Settlers Museum operated by the Woocoo Historical Society. In 1922 the residents of the Woocoo Shire erected a war memorial outside St Mary's Church of England on the Maryborough-Biggenden Road at Teebar. In 1992 the memorial was relocated to the Woocoo Historical Museum in Brooweena due to concerns about vandalism. It is now known as the Brooweena War Memorial. A timber mill was established in 1924, ensuring the continuing existence of the town. Idalia Provisional School opened on 20 July 1931 and closed on 16 April 1939. New council chambers were opened in Brooweena on 14 April 1962 by Jack Pizzey, the Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Isis. The town set an unofficial record in 2009 when 134 people simultaneously played the lagerphone. In the 2011 census, Brooweena had a population of 263 people. In the, Brooweena had a population of 104 people.
Brooweena State School is a government primary school for boys and girls at Lahey Street. In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 12 students with 2 teachers and 4 non-teaching staff. There is no secondary school in Brooweena; the nearest are in Maryborough to the east or Gayndah to the west.
