Dakabin, a residential and industrial suburb in Pine Rivers Shire, is 29 km north of central Brisbane, and 5 km north of Petrie. It is thought that the name was derived from an Aboriginal word describing the grass tree (Xanthorrhoea). Dakabin is on the North Coast railway line (1888), which defines the suburb's western boundary.

Until the 1970s Dakabin was a rural district. A typical description before then was in the post office directory of 1923: a baker, a sawmill, a fuel merchant, two timber getters and nine farmers engaged in dairying, general grazing and fruit growing. Not recorded was the explosives storage at 'Magazine Siding' (1896-1903) near the railway line. Kept there by the Brisbane Port Authority, the magazine was finally removed in 1963. Urbanisation in Pine Rivers Shire expanded from Petrie to Kallangur in the 1960s and then to Dakabin. A district high school for Kallangur was opened in 1978, just beyond its boundary, in Dakabin. Twenty-five years later the Dakabin high school, with 1300 students, had the unenviable distinction of being run-down and neglected by the State's school maintenance programme. That, however, did not detract from the school's cattle breeding programme, so successful that it took out judging prizes. The Dakabin primary school was a later facility (1992), located in Kallangur.

In Old Gympie Road, Dakabin, there is the Pine Rivers Shire's rubbish dump, a facility distinguished by the recycling of electrical and other goods. Nearby, visitors and families can have a day outing at the Alma Park Zoo. On Old Gympie Road there is the Seventh Day Adventist convention centre and the Northpine Christian College (1978). On the opposite side of the road there is Dakabin sports and recreation complex. Housing is mostly concentrated in the south of Dakabin near the high school.

Dakabin's census populations were:

Census DatePopulation
192175
195452
20061275
20111447

Between 1954 and 2006 Dakabin census data was included with the figures for Kallangur and Murrumba Downs.

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