Dingo is a rural town and locality in the Central Highlands Region,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. In the , the locality of Dingo had a population of 221 people.

Geography

The town is on the

Capricorn Highway The Capricorn Highway is located in Central Queensland, Australia, and links the city of Rockhampton with western Queensland. The highway is long, and joins the Landsborough Highway at Barcaldine. Formerly National Route 66, Queensland began ...

, by road north-west of the state capital

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and by road west of the regional centre of

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

. The Fitzroy Developmental Road runs north-west from the Capricorn Highway. The Central Western railway line passes through the locality with two stations (from west to east): * Umolo railway station () *Dingo railway station, serving the town ()

History

The town was surveyed in 1889 and took its name from the nearby Dingo Creek. For a time in 1940 the town was known as Remo. Dingo Post Office opened on 1 October 1876. Dingo Provisional School opened on 29 May 1876. On 22 January 1877 it became Dingo State School. In 1973, a population of Bridled nail-tail wallabies (''Onychogalea fraenata'') was found in the Dingo area by a fencing contractor. Not having been seen since 1937, the species had been considered

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. The area where the wallabies was rediscovered was protected as Taunton National Park. On 31 January 1997, Duaringa Shire mayor Tom Hall unveiled a

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

of a dingo in Normanby Street opposite the library (). It was created by Gaye Porter. A plaque attached below the statue explains how pioneer Moses Wafer named the area after hearing

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

s howling during the night while camped near the present-day site of the town.

Demographics

In the , the locality of Dingo had a population of 263 people. In the , the locality of Dingo had a population of 342 people. In the , the locality of Dingo had a population of 340 people. In the , the locality of Dingo had a population of 221 people.

Education

Dingo State School is a government primary (Early Childhood-6) school for boys and girls on the corner of Kennedy and Normanby Streets (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 47 students with 5 teachers (4 full-time equivalent) and 6 non-teaching staff (4 full-time equivalent).

Amenities

The Central Highlands Regional Council operates a public library at 10 Normanby Street ().

Events

In August each year, the Dingo Race Club holds the annual Dingo Race Day and World Dingo Trap Throwing Competition at Bauman Park (). The event was attended by 2000 people in 2019 when it celebrated its 30th anniversary. This figure grew to 4,000 when the event returned in 2021 after being cancelled in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Notable residents

Australian rugby league player Ben Hunt grew up in Dingo.

References

External links

Dingo, Queensland – Central Highlands website
* {{authority control Towns in Queensland Central Highlands Region Localities in Queensland