Borroloola is a small town with a colourful past. Its old police station is now a museum, with displays harking back to the days the Carnegie Foundation provided books for a library there, with the result that its inmates were the best read in the territory, able to recite poetry at the drop of a hat. Nothing remains of this and also the "Hermits of Borroloola", eccentric loners who made the town their home around the middle of last century, are now but a memory although their names live on in street names.

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The town is situated about 350 kilometres east of the Daly Waters turnoff and just south of the Gulf of Carpentaria; it is the centre of the Yanyuwa Aboriginal people and the cattle stations of the surrounding area. There are a few shops, a lively pub and the fishing in the McArthur River is one of the best in the Territory, with each year a competition to catch the largest "barramundi", a highly prized fresh water fish.

The surroundings are beautiful too, with clear rivers and swimming holes like those on the Wearyan River, Batten Creek and Bone Lagoon, although the latter is on an Aboriginal owned station, not too far from Bing Bong on the coast. It is not advisable to swim in the McArthur River though: large "salties" (crocodiles) may be seen.