Dimbulah
Rural town south-west of Cairns on the railway line to Chillagoe. The name may be derived from an Aboriginal word describing a permanent waterhole on the Walsh River. The settlement began as a location for servicing of railway locomotives hauling coal from Cairns to the Chillagoe smelters, but the discovery of coal at Mount Mulligan saw a branch line from Mount Mulligan was opened in 1915 with Dimbulahbecoming a railway junction. Freight from the Mount Garnet branch line and the Einasleigh/Forsayth line also passed through Dimbulah, as did ore from Wolfram, and there are two heritage-listed rare metals treatment plants at Dimbulah.
Within a few years of successful crops planted around Mareeba, tobacco was planted at Dimbulah, coinciding with the arrival of Italian migrants. A local tobacco growers association was formed in 1935. Migration was resumed after the war, including Croatian families and others from southern Europe. Closure of the Mount Mulligan line and the contraction of tobacco growing resulted in a declining population but the town remains a multicultural community drawn from more than twenty nationalities with about two-thirds of the population originating from postwar migration.
Donors Hill
Gulf country station taken up in 1865 by Brodie Brothers, , who came from Murrurrundi, in New South Wales. They travelled by Bowen River and along the Cape River, and took up the country about the junction of the Cloncurry and the Flinders Rivers, near some isolated limestone hills, which were named Donor's Hills.
Doonmunya
Local government area created on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. On 13 January 1883, the Carpentaria Division was created from part of Doonmunya, with the rest absorbed into the Burke Division two years later.
Douglas
Residential and university suburb of Townsville named after Queensland premier, John Douglas or Robert Johnstone Douglas, a judge of the Queensland Supreme Court (1923-53), who practised law in Townsville from 1907.
Shire extended northwards along the coast from just beyond Ellis Beach north of Cairns to Bloomfield River. In 2008 it was amalgamated with Cairns City to form Cairns Regional Council. In March 2013 more than 57% of voters in the former Douglas Shire opted for de-amalgamation and a separate Douglas Shire council will resume local government duties from 1 January 2014.
Duchess
Former mining town on the railway line between Cloncurry and Mount Isa. The ore body was discovered in 1897 by Alexander Kennedy, who chose the name n memory of a black woman, the former mistress of an alleged English aristocrat known as 'the Duke'. The mine was financed by Kennedy, Ernest Henry and Melbourne interests was the richest copper mine in the district when it began serious production in 1907. A railway link to Cloncurry enabled fuel to be brought in for the smelter after 1912, and wartime copper prices were buoyant, and the town has a population around 1000 in 1917, compared with 74 in the 1911. A postwar collapse in copper prices saw the smelter close and the population dwindle to 334 (1921) and 135 (1933). While the mine exploited a large lode of rich ore that was easy to smelt, it was deep and there were issues with water. Other lodes in the vicinity were closer tom the surface and more easily mined.
Dunk
Island, the largest island in the Family Islands, named after his patron George Montagu Dunk, Earl of Halifax by Captain Cook, who sailed past it on 8 June 1770. Europeans first settled on the island in 1897. Dunk Island was used by the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II. The island and its resort facilities were affected by both Cyclone Larry and Cyclone Yasi.
Duyfken
Point, coastal feature agreed to be the first recorded point of European contact with the Australian continen, named by Matthew Flinders in honour of the voyage of the Duyfken. Willem Jansz, the Dutch captain of the Duyfken, made the first recorded European sightings of Australia in this area, forty-five kilometres north of Weipa.
Dysart
Town north-west of Rockhampton that serves as a dormitory town and service centre for open cut coal mines at Saraji and Norwich Park. The name is of Scottish origin and was used for a pastoral property and the local parish.