Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Larrimah NT

Larrimah

Postcode: 0852

Larrimah is a tiny hamlet in the Northern Territory of Australia. It has a population of 18. It is built along the Stuart Highway and offers petrol and supplies to passing motorists. It was the railhead on the Palmerston and Pine Creek Railway during the Second World War.

It was visited in an episode of Dom Joly’s Happy Hour.

Larrimah is the home of the Big Stubby.

The town’s one point of real interest is the Gorrie Airstrip. Located about 10 km north of Larrimah it is one of the largest, if not the largest, dirt airstrips in Australia. The site of the largest army base in Australia during World War II the airstrip was named after F/OP. Gorrie, No. 2 Squadron RAAF who was killed in action near Menado, Dutch East Indies on 12 January 1942. It can be reached by driving west from the Stuart Highway for about 3 km on a dirt track which suddenly opens out and you find yourself on the actual airstrip. Gorrie was intended as the American’s major line of defence against the Japanese.