Dajarra

Rural

Believe it or not Dajarra was once the largest trucking depot in the world. Dajarra is now a quiet, laid back town in the far north of Outback Queensland. The older people of the area who remember Dajarra’s heyday say that the area trucked more cattle than Texas in the United States of America. Drovers would bring cattle from as far away as Western Australia to put them on the train at Dajarra. Then came the road trains and soon the railway was turned into just a memory.

The town also has a rich aboriginal heritage and is home to aboriginal tribes from around the Diamantina River, the Gulf and the Northern Territory. The old culture is upheld here. The aboriginal language is taught at the school by a couple of elders and one local elder shows the children how to make boomerangs, what wood to use and what timber is best for didgeridoos. They still know where to find the bush foods and the ‘bush lollies’ on the gidyea trees after rain, berries, wild oranges at Christmas and wild bananas on the road to Mount Isa.