Dunmarra

Located 300 kilometres south of Katherine, Dunmarra is a small settlement on the historical Overland Telegraph Line. Today, the town is little more than a roadhouse providing fuel, motel accommodation, a caravan park and other services to travellers. An interesting story is associated with the area's name. Overland Telegraph linesman, Dan O'Mara, disappeared in the region in the early 1900s. Drover Noel Healy established a cattle station here in the 1930s and discovered O'Mara's skeleton in the bush. The name Dunmarra was arrived at as a result of the local Aboriginal people's inability to pronounce O'Mara's name. A monument to the Overland Telegraph Line stands beside the Stuart Highway south of Dunmarra, dedicated to Sir Charles Todd, Postmaster, General of the Province of South Australia, 1872