Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Peranga Queensland QLD

Peranga Queensland

Postcode: 4352

Peranga is a small town on the Darling Downs, 77 km north-west of Toowoomba and 55 km north-east of Dalby in Queensland, Australia.

Once the prosperous hub of a rich dairy-producing area, Peranga went into sharp decline after the closure of the Oakey-Cooyar Railway Line in the mid-1960s. The hotel burnt down in 1967, followed by the school in 1973. Today, the population numbers about fifty. The Peranga & District Bowls Club, opened in 1955, is still in operation. There is a post office and general store, a one-man police station and a town hall. Together with Peranga, the surrounding towns of Quinalow (10 km west), Maclagan (13 km north-west) and Kulpi (9 km south) are interdependent, having between them all the amenities of a small town. Kulpi has a hotel and tennis courts; Quinalow a garage, cafe, hotel, rural supplier, school, swimming pool and skate park; and Maclagan has a post office and general store, two wineries, a small museum, a butcher, a kindergarten and several parks.

The most popular surnames in Peranga are: Foxhall (12), Harberger (5), Murray (4), Vanderham (4), Biggar (3), Janke (3).

More than 9000ha of this beautiful park were given over by the Queensland Government for the protection of the huge bunya pines which grow here. These superb prehistoric trees, whose origins date back some 65 million years, were highly prized by local Aborigines who fed on their oil-rich pine nuts.