NARRABRI

town, northeastern New South Wales, Australia. It lies along Narrabri Creek (tributary of the Namoi River), just west of the Nandewar Range. Surveyed in 1859 and declared a municipality in 1883, it derives its name from an Aboriginal word meaning big creek and forked sticks. On the Newell Highway, with regular air and rail service to Sydney (264 miles southeast) and Brisbane, Narrabri serves an area of dairy, sheep, cereal, and cotton farming (on the Namoi flats) and rutile mining. The town has freezing, engineering, sheet plaster, and joinery works and flour mills, sawmills, and one of the nation's largest oilseed mills. Located nearby are Mount Kaputar National Park, agricultural research centres, and the Paul Wild Observatory (the Culgoora astronomical site), which has a major array of radio telescopes. Pop. (1986) 7,246; (1991) 6,694.