Daly Waters is located 274 kilometres south of Katherine near the junction of the Stuart and Carpentaria Highways. Despite the tiny population of the settlement, the Daly Waters’ Pub is one of the Territory’s most famous watering holes. One of the oldest buildings in the Northern Territory, the pub is a quirky place clad in corrugated iron and crammed with decades of memorabilia. The annual Daly Waters rodeo is an institution not to be missed.
Daly Waters also has a rich and interesting aviation history, being the centre for the London to Sydney air race of 1926, a World War II air force base and a refuelling stop for Qantas. The Daly Waters hangar exhibits interesting facts, photographs and equipment from the area’s former aviation glory days.
The Jingili people, the traditional Aboriginal owners of the area, believe the Dreaming tracks of the Emu and the Sun travelled through here on their way to the southern parts of the Northern Territory. In 1862, after two unsuccessful attempts to cross the continent, early explorer John McDougall Stuart finally discovered water in this region. He blazed an ‘S’ in a nearby tree to signify his important find.