Dirranbandi
Postcode: 4486
Dirranbandi is a town of approximately 1000 persons in south-western Queensland, Australia, located in Balonne Shire. It is an Aboriginal word meaning “swamp abounding in frogs and waterfowl”
It sits on the Castlereagh Highway and the Balonne River.
It is notable for the population increase each year as seasonal workers come to work on the extensive cotton fields. Due to the low annual rainfall, irrigation is used extensively. Dirranbandi is close to Cubbie Station, the largest privately owned cotton property in the southern hemisphere.
The Culgoa Floodplain National Park is nearby. Dirranbandi is located on the traditional lands of the Kooma people.
Taking its name from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘frogs around the waterhole’, the Balonne River town of Dirranbandi is about 70 km from St George in Queensland’s south-west and is the gateway to the Culgoa Plains National Park.
Straddling the Queensland-NSW border, the park is renowned for its variety of birds. At the centre of a cotton-growing area, Dirranbandi’s population almost doubles at harvest time when backpackers flock into town to pick the crop. Nearby Cubbie Station is believed to be the largest, privately-owned cotton farm in the Southern Hemisphere.